Malappuram district recorded 198 fresh COVID-19 cases on Friday. District Collector K. Gopalakrishnan and two dozen officers of the district administration are among those who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. They were at the Air India Express flight crash site at Karipur last Friday and Saturday.

However, the district witnessed 424 recoveries on Friday, the highest on a single day since the virus spread began in March.

The source of infection of 18 people, including the Collector, could not be traced.

Out of the 198 fresh cases, 179 got the infection through local transmission. The district has registered 4,409 cases since March. While 2,751 have recovered, 1,635 are still under treatment. There have been 21 COVID-19 deaths in Malappuram.

948 active COVID-19 cases in Palakkad

In Palakkad district, 180 persons tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday. The number includes a man from Kozhikode.

While 151 persons were found to have been infected through local transmission, 10 came from abroad and eight from other States. The source of infection in nine cases could not be traced.

District Collector D. Balamurali said 91 persons recovered from the disease on Friday. The number of infected persons currently under treatment in Palakkad has reached 948.

80 cases, 53 recoveries in Thrissur district

As many as 80 cases of COVID-19 were reported in Thrissur on Friday while 53 people recovered from the infection. There are 497 active cases in the district at present.

The samples of a 65-year-old man from Arimbur who died at a private hospital in the district on August 8 have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. A lorry driver, the man was admitted to the hospital following chest pain. The body was buried in compliance with COVID-19 protocol.

Of the 80 cases reported on Friday, 68 persons have been infected through contact. As many as 18 people were tested positive from the Amala Hospital cluster. There were 15 positive cases from the hospital on Thursday. The source of infection is not known in the case of four persons. A total of 9,707 people are under observation in Thrissur.

56 cases of local transmission in Wayanad district

As many as 57 persons tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in Wayanad district on Friday. Of them, 56 contracted the infection through contact, while one arrived from Nagaland. As many as 322 patients are currently under treatment. While 1,034 persons were infected in the district in the past five months, 709 have recovered from the disease. The disease has so far claimed three lives in Wayanad.