Kerala reported 2,885 new cases of COVID-19 and 1,944 recoveries on Saturday.

The samples tested in the last 24 hours is 43,954.

The cumulative case burden of the State now stands at 1,05,139. Having reported 75,848 recoveries till date, the number of COVID-19 patients currently undergoing treatment in hospitals across the State now is 28,802.

The State’s COVID toll reached 425, with the Health Department adding 15 more deaths which occurred in the State between August 22 and September 8 to the provisional COVID death list of the State on Saturday.

Six of these deaths were reported from Thiruvananthapuram, three from Kozhikode, two each from Thrissur and Palakkad and one each from Malappuram and Ernakulam.

On Saturday too, nearly 94 % of the new cases reported – 2,706 out of the 2,885 new cases – were locally acquired infections, with the authorities unable to trace the source of infection in 287 cases. This includes infections reported in 55 healthcare workers also, with 18 of these cases reported in Thiruvananthapuram, 10 in Ernakulam and the rest scattered in districts.

Thiruvananthapuram continues to report the maximum number of cases in the State, reporting 566 new cases on Saturday, of which except for seven cases, the rest were all locally transmitted infections.

The district also tops others when it comes to the number of active cases, with 5,094 people currently admitted in hospitals or COVID first-line treatment centres. Ernakulam comes second, with 3,037 cases.

The rise in cumulative case burden has seen a simultaneous rise in the number of active cases in all districts. Except for Idukki and Wayanad which has less than 500 cases occupying hospital beds, in all other districts, the number of active cases has crossed four figures. In seven districts, there are over 2,000 patients occupying hospital beds, indicating that as the surge in cases continue, health system capacity is going to be under tremendous strain.

The number of hotspots in the State at present is 603.