Local transmission of COVID-19 now accounts for over 60% of the total cases reported in the State, with a significant increase in the number of cases for which the authorities have not been able to establish an epidemiological link.

New patient clusters are being reported from coastal as well as urban areas in most districts. The State reported 593 new cases on Saturday, taking the cumulative case burden to 11,659.

While there was a marginal reduction in the total number of new cases reported on Saturday, the proportion of cases occurring through local transmission remained unchanged, with 385 out of the 593 cases being reported from the community.

No epidemiological link has been found in 36 cases. These cases include 19 health-care workers in various districts.

Two deaths were reported from Thiruvananthapuram district, taking the death toll in the State to 40.

The number of recoveries was 204. Of the 11,659 cases reported so far, the number of recoveries have been 5,201. The number of active cases in hospitals in various districts is 6,841.

Thiruvananthapuram, with 173 new cases, again accounted for the maximum number of fresh cases on Saturday. Of this, 157 were local transmission cases.

More areas in the State have been designated as hotspots, with local transmission going up and clusters forming in all districts. The number of hotspots now is 299.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the Health and Local Self-Government Departments and the district disaster management authorities were engaged in setting up more COVID firstline treatment centres to handle the huge volume of patients who seem to be asymptomatic.

The authorities were attempting to do intensive testing in containment zones and trying to pin point the cause of local transmission in the community clusters so that disease containment could be limited within the clusters.

Mr. Vijayan said all police stations would have at least one oxygen cylinder in stock which could be mobilised in emergency situation.