COVID-19: 5,214 new positive cases in Kerala on Tuesday, 6,475 recover

Kerala steps up vigil against new variant of corona, screening of UK returnees strengthened

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala reported 5,214 new coronavirus positive cases after 69,844 tests on Tuesday. The state also registered 6,475 recoveries in the last 24 hours, the Health department informed in a press statement. The test positivity rate stands at 7.47 per cent.

The data of last one week by the Union Health Ministry showed that Kerala and Maharashtra account for 71 per cent of the fresh caseload of the week with Kerala making up almost half of the total.

Earlier in the day, Dr. Randeep Guleria, Director, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, evoked the possibility of an undetected mutant strain of Sars-CoV-2 circulating in the two states.

So far 81 people who had returned from Britain have tested positive for the virus and the samples of 62 persons has come out negative. Ten people among the UK returnees were found infected with the new strain of the virus.

With 19 deaths being reported on Tuesday, the state's death toll has risen to 3.902.

Of the new cases, 4788 contracted the disease through contact. The source of infection of 336 among them is unknown.

As many as 61 infected persons came from outside the state.

The state has reported 9,77,394 COVID-19 cases so far, out of which 9,09,102 persons recovered. The remaining 64,131 patients are undergoing treatment.

On Tuesday, antigen tests were done on 803 delegates who had registered for the 25th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), and 18 were found positive. Yesterday, the first day of the free antigen testing for IFFK delegates, 623 delegates tested and 11 were found positive. This takes the total number of IFFK delegates who had tested positive to 29, a positivity of 2.03 per cent.

The Chalachithra Academy had decided to conduct free antigen tests on delegates and volunteers. Only those tested negative will be allowed to participate in the festival.

District-wise breakup of today's positive cases:

Ernakulam 615 (contact cases - 580)

Kollam 586 (580)

Kottayam 555 (512)

Thrissur 498 (485)

Pathanamthitta 496 (451)

Kozhikode 477 (460)

Thiruvananthapuram 455 (366)

Malappuram 449 (428)

Alappuzha 338 (334)

Kannur 273 (233)

Palakkad 186 (92)

Kasaragod 112 (100)

Idukki 100 (95)

Wayanad 74 (72)

COVID-19 in Kerala
A healthcare worker wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) collects a swab sample from a man during a rapid antigen testing campaign for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at a kiosk in Ahmedabad, India, February 4, 2021. REUTERS/Amit Dave

District-wise breakup of recoveries:

Thiruvananthapuram 422

Kollam 317

Pathanamthitta 423

Alappuzha 279

Kottayam 1194

Idukki 388

Ernakulam 605

Thrissur 506

Palakkad 201

Malappuram 645

Kozhikode 797

Wayanad 266

Kannur 263

Kasaragod 169

COVID-19 in Kerala

Testing and quarantine

A total of 2,33,664 people are under observation in various districts. Of these, 2,23,434 are under home or institutional quarantine and 10,230 are in hospitals.

1,179 people were admitted in hospitals on Tuesday.

So far, 1,02,14,097 samples (including the augmented sample) have been sent for testing.

On Tuesday, 10 more regions have been converted into hotspots and three have been excluded from the list taking the total number of hotspots to 459 in the state.

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