Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala recorded 26,514 new COVID-19 cases on Monday after testing 55,557 samples.
Around 2 lakh new cases have been reported from Kerala in the past five days and the daily test positivity rate reached an all time high of 47.7 per cent on Wednesday.
COVID fatalities reached 51,987, after 158 previously undocumented deaths and 13 recent ones were added to the list, Health Minister Veena George said in a press release.
After 30,710 more recover from the infection, the number active patients in the state reached 2,60,271. Among them, only 3.8 per cent are admitted to hospitals currently.
The state has reported 56,69,611 cases so far. Of them, 53,56,642 recovered.
The state had recorded 45,136 and 45,449 new cases on Saturday and Sunday respectively.
On Thursday, Kerala had registered 46,387 cases, the highest single-day spike since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020.
District-wise breakup of today's positive cases:
Ernakulam - 4,443
Thiruvananthapuram - 3,256
Kozhikode - 2,979
Thrissur -2,687
Kollam - 2,421
Kottayam - 1,900
Malappuram - 1,710
Palakkad - 1,498
Kannur - 1,260
Alappuzha - 1,165
Pathanamthitta - 1,065
Idukki - 1,033
Kasaragod - 573
Wayanad - 524
Vaccination and quarantine
Till Monday, 100 per cent (2,67,54,285) of the eligible adult population in Kerala has been given one dose of COVID-19 vaccine while 83 per cent (2,22,70,156) received both the doses. Among children aged between 15-18 years, 63 per cent (10,20,601) have been vaccinated.
As of now, a total of 4,31,176 people are under observation across the state. Of them, 4,21,138 are under home or institutional quarantine while 10,038 are in hospitals across the state. A total of 881 people were admitted in hospitals on Monday.
Minister dismisses false reports
The state health minister on Monday dispelled media reports that there is a huge shortage of health facilities following the massive spike. George said that the media reports are baseless and unfounded.
"At the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College there are 206 ICU beds and of these 40 beds are set aside for Covid patients and at present 20 beds are vacant, so is the case with other state run hospitals. Across the state in these centres 43 per cent of the facilities are occupied by Covid and non-Covid patients, while the rest are lying vacant," said George.
She added with regard to occupancy in the beds with Oxygen facility it's a mere 0.7 per cent while it's just 0.4 per cent ICU beds.
Meanwhile, reports have come that with a huge number of health care professionals turning positive, there are issues of heavy workload and testing centres are also flooded with samples and legislators are now calling up these centres to speed up the testing process and to provide for the results at the earliest.
Another feature during the third wave in Kerala is that some are not going out to conduct the tests and at many homes, they do the testing on kits available at the medical shops and hence these figures do not add up to the daily positive cases.
