Kerala began the week with a rise in its COVID-19 incidence by 1,725 cases on Monday, alongside 1,131 recoveries.

The total for cases went up to 46,150, of which 15,890 were active cases or patients currently under treatment in hospitals. A total of 30,029 persons recovered.

The State’s COVID-19 death toll touched 169 on Monday, with the Health department adding 13 more deaths.

Five deaths were in Kasaragod, three in Thiruvananthapuram, two in Alapuzha and one each in Kannur, Kozhikode and Malappuram.

On Monday, 93 % of new cases – 1,605 of 1,725 – were locally acquired infections, including infections in 31 healthcare workers. No epidemiological link could be established for 94 cases.

Thiruvananthapuram again had the highest number of new positive daily cases at 461, of which 450 were locally acquired infections, including that of 15 healthcare workers.

Cases in other districts included Malappuram (306) Kozhikode (46), Alapuzha (139), Ernakulam (129), Kollam (48), Thrissur (156), Kasaragod (97), Palakkad (137), Kannur (77), Pathanamthitta (2), Wayanad (15), Kottayam (89) and Idukki (23).

The number of samples tested by the State in the last 24 hours stood at 26,150.

10.21% positivity rate

Andhra Pradesh reported 82 more COVID-19 deaths and 6,780 new infections, taking the toll to 2,732 and the tally to 2,96,609 on Monday. The health bulletin said the recovery rate had crossed 70%. There were 84,777 active cases.

In 24 hours, 44,578 samples were tested with the positivity rate of tests conducted so far at 10.21%.

Prakasam district reported 13 new deaths, the highest, followed by East Godavari (10) and Chittoor (8). Guntur and Kadapa reported eight deaths each while West Godavari and Srikakulam reported six deaths each. Anantapur, Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Kurnool reported five deaths each, Krishna reported three and Nellore reported two deaths. East Godavari again reported the highest single-day tally of 911 new cases, followed by Guntur (776), West Godavari (724), Anantapur (535), Srikakulam (527), Kadapa (523), Visakhapatnam (519), Nellore (481), Vizianagaram (462), Chittoor (458), Kurnool (372), Prakasam (357) and Krishna (135).

Telanganites breathed slightly easier with a reduced 894 samples testing positive on Sunday, the lowest number of cases in a day in the past one-and-a-half months. However, this did not indicate a sudden drop in the incidence. Only 8,794 tests to detect coronavirus were conducted on Sunday, the lowest number in the past one month.

Both tests and cases were lower on weekends from the last week of July.

The 894 cases on August 16 included 147 from Greater Hyderabad, 85 from Rangareddy, and 69 from Karimnagar. Test results of 421 samples were awaited. The toll rose to 703 as 10 more patients died. Of the total 92,255 cases, 21,420 were active.

With 115 new COVID-19 deaths reported in Karnataka on Monday, the total number of deaths crossed the 4,000 mark.

According to the Department of Health and Family Welfare, the total number of deaths in the State stood at 4,062. There were also 16 deaths of patients who tested positive but died due to other reasons.

Meanwhile, 6,317 new cases were reported on Monday. With this, the total number of cases rose to 2,33,283. Of 6,317 cases, 2,053 were reported from Bengaluru Urban. The number of discharges on Monday was 7,071. The number of tests conducted on Monday dipped to 37,700.

(With inputs from Vijayawada, Hyderabad and Bengaluru bureaus)