Covid deaths swell in Kerala: 10 in a day, 83 in 16 days

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Covid-19 scenario in the state is getting worse by the day, with 10 deaths -- the highest so far -- being recorded on Sunday. There has been a rapid rise in Covid deaths in August, with 83 of the total 157 deaths being reported in the month. The state has not included a Mahe native who died in Pariyaram medical college hospital in April in its official tally.
As many as 1,530 cases were reported on Sunday, of which 1,404 are contact cases. The recoveries were 1,099, taking the number of active cases to 15,310. The number of cases reported in the state till date is 44,385.
The deaths confirmed on Sunday are C C Raghavan (71), Moosa (76), Simon (60), C V Venugopal (80) and Gopi (69), all from Kannur, Kanakaraj (60) of Thiruvananthapuram, Mathew (60) of Pathanamthitta, Abdul Khader (73) and Leelamani Amma (71) of Ernakulam and Sarojini (72) of Kollam.
Sources in 100 cases unknown
On Saturday, the state reported 1,608 cases --the highest on a day so far. Seven Covid deaths and 803 recoveries were also reported.
On Sunday, over 500 cases -- 519 in Thiruvananthapuram -- were reported from a single district for the first time. The district has so far reported 9,482 cases, of which 3,934 are active cases.
The other cases reported are 221 in Malappuram, 123 in Ernakulam, 118 in Kozhikode, 100 in Kottayam, 86 in Alappuzha, 81 in Kollam, 52 in Kannur, 49 in Wayanad, 48 in Kasaragod, 44 in Pathanamthitta, 30 each in Idukki and Thrissur and 29 in Palakkad.
Among the new cases, 37 persons had come from abroad and 89 from other states. Among the contact cases, the source of infection is not yet known in 100 persons.
Thiruvananthapuram
(487) also had the highest number of contact cases, followed by Malappuram 200, Ernakulam 110, Kozhikode 106, Kottayam 91, Alappuzha 73, Kollam 70, Kannur 38, Kasaragod 37, Wayanad 36, Pathanamthitta 33, Thrissur 27, Palakkad 24 and Idukki 19.
In the last 24 hours, 30,123 samples were tested in the state. Till date, 5,11,471 samples (including repeat, augmented and private lab samples) have been sent for tests, of which results are pending in 8,256 samples. Besides, 1,49,385 samples were taken from priority groups as part of sentinel surveillance, of which 1,187 results are under process.
As many as 1,62,217 persons are under surveillance, of which 1,48,793 are under home/institutional quarantine and 13,424 admitted to designated isolation facilities.