Local transmission of COVID-19 continues to grow at a steady pace in the State with 19 more persons, including six personnel of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) in Kannur district, contracting the disease from the community on Wednesday.

The COVID cluster among CISF personnel in Kannur has grown big for the past few days.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who briefed media, said the State had to ready itself to face new challenges in the coming days as the number of patients seemed to be growing steadily, post lockdown.

However, the number of cases of local transmission and the State’s death rate had not shown a significant spike, he said. Kerala reported 151 new cases on Wednesday, including one death, taking the death toll to 25.

However, in what should be seen as a big balancing act which goes a long way in reducing the strain on the health system infrastructure, 132 persons have recovered from the disease. The number of active cases is thus stabilised at 2,130.

The cumulative number of cases reported since the outbreak now stands at 4,593 and the total recoveries at 2,436.

One more death was added to the State’s COVID tally when the test results of a 68-year-old security staff at Nadakkavu in Kozhikode district, who had committed suicide on June 27, turned out to be positive.

Of the new cases, 86 cases were diagnosed in persons who had come from abroad and 45 cases in people who had come to the State from other parts of the country.

The number of persons put on surveillance is 1,87,219, out of which 2,831 persons with mild COVID-like symptoms are isolated in various hospitals. The State has tested 6,564 samples in the last 24 hours. The number of hotspots is 124 now.