The State on Friday reported 150 fresh COVID-19 cases. With 65 recoveries on the same day, the number of active cases now is 1,846, all of whom are undergoing treatment in hospitals across districts.
While 139 of the new cases are imported cases of infection diagnosed in people who have returned home from abroad and other States, it is a matter of concern that 11 people have contracted the disease from the community through local transmission, after they came into contact with known or unknown sources of infection.
Of the 11 cases of local transmission, one person is a health-care worker in Palakkad district.
Five of the 11 cases of local transmission have been reported in the capital city where large areas have been declared as containment zones after close to 10 persons, including a family cluster of eight, acquired COVID-19 from the community over the past few days. The Health Department has not been able to establish an epidemiological link for these cases.
In Kannur, the situation is a matter of concern as six out of the 13 who tested positive are members of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), while three are employees of the Army canteen. Two of the CISF personnel who tested positive had been on duty at the Kannur airport.
Palakkad district has the maximum number of patients on treatment at 237, followed by Malappuram, 191; Kollam, 183; Pathanamthitta, 177; Kannur, 157; Alappuzha, 154; Ernakulam, 153; Thrissur, 126; Kasaragod, 106; Kottayam, 114; Thiruvananthapuram, 84; Kozhikode, 80; Idukki, 50; and Wayanad, 34.
Ever since the outbreak of the pandemic, 3,876 persons have tested positive in the State, out of whom, 2,006 persons have recovered so far from the disease.
The number of people put on surveillance and quarantine is 1,63,944, of whom, 2,397 persons with mild symptoms have been isolated in hospitals in various districts.
The State has sent 5,859 samples over the past 24 hours for testing. So far, in all categories and testing modalities, 2,09,456 samples have been tested. This is apart from the 43,032 samples which were tested randomly from the community as part of sentinel surveillance.
The total number of hotspots in the State now is 114.