Kerala reported 903 new cases of COVID-19 and 641 recoveries on Wednesday. With 739 of the new cases being locally acquired infections, there seems to be no let-up in disease transmission in the community. In 35 of these cases, authorities have not been able to find an epidemiological link. One more death in Malappuram was added to the State’s toll, which now stands at 68.

The number of health-care workers who tested positive on Wednesday was 30. The cumulative case burden of the State now stands at 21,797, of whom 11,365 have recovered. The number of patients currently in various hospitals in the State is 10,350.

Thiruvananthapuram has been consistently reporting the maximum number of new cases daily. Of the 213 cases reported on Wednesday, 208 were locally acquired infections, including 10 health-care workers.

Highest in capital

The number of active cases in Thiruvananthapuram or patients currently undergoing treatment in hospitals in the district has reached 3,023, which is over three times the number of patients in the district at the second spot.

The rest of the districts have a case load less than 100 on Wednesday. Malappuram has 87 cases, 52 of which are cases of local transmission.

Kollam has 84 cases, Ernakulam 83, Kozhikode 67, Pathanamthitta 54, Palakkad 49, Kasaragod 49, Wayanad 43, Kannur 42, Alappuzha 38, Idukki 34, Thrissur 31 and Kottayam 29.

Samples tested

Over 1.47 lakh people are in quarantine in the State, with 10,057 of them with mild COVID-19-like symptoms isolated in hospitals. The number of samples sent for testing in the State in the last 24 hours has gone up to 23,924.

So far, the State has tested 7,33,413 samples under various diagnostic modalities. This is apart from the 1,19,019 samples from the community tested as part of sentinel surveillance.

Nineteen new areas entered the hotspots list, while 13 others were dropped from the list. The total number of hotspots in the State now is 492.