The cumulative number of COVID-19 cases crossed the 5,000 mark on Saturday and stood at 5,204, with the State reporting 240 new cases, setting yet another new high in single-day spike so far.

With 209 persons recovering and leaving hospitals on Saturday, the State seems to be maintaining the trend of balancing the new cases with almost as many cases of recovery. The number of active cases undergoing treatment in hospitals now is 2,129.

The number of recoveries reached 3,048 so far.

However, cases of local transmission seems to be on a steady high with new and expanding clusters as well as random cases without any epidemiological link springing up in many parts of the State.

There were 36 cases of local transmission, which included 11 members of the Defence Security Corps and four Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel in Kannur and four Border Security Force jawans in Thrissur. The rest of the 204 new cases are all imported cases of infection.

Almost all of these scattered cases wherein the source of infection remains untraced have been reported in people for whom interactions with a large number of people on a daily basis seems to be an occupational hazard. They include lottery sellers, fish vendors, food delivery staff, medical representatives and drivers of public transport vehicles.

This drives in the point that physical distancing and avoiding crowded environs are key COVID-19 prevention strategies.

Of the new cases, Malappuram has 37, Kannur 35, Palakkad 29, Pathanamthitta 22, Alappuzha and Thrissur 20 each, Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam 16 each, Kasaragod 14, Ernakulam 13, Kozhikode 8, Kottayam 6, and Idukki and Wayanad 2 each.

Malappuram with 278 patients and Kannur with 246 are the districts with the highest caseload. Ernakulam with 191 patients, Thrissur with 189 and Kollam and Pathanamthitta with 183 patients each have also added significantly to their caseload in recent days.

The number of persons under surveillance is 1,77,759, of whom, 2,915 persons with mild COVID-like symptoms are isolated in hospitals.

The number of samples tested in the last 24 hours is 7,219. The number of hotspots is 135.