At 679 cases on Thursday, the daily COVID-19 caseload in the district remained below the 800-mark for the fifth consecutive day, but the death toll rose sharply with 18 more recent deaths getting confirmed as due to the infection.
The deceased included nine men and nine women hailing from Mannamkunnu, Kanjiramkulam, Balaramapuram, Nalanchira, Perunthanni, Bhagavathinada, Poovar, Kallambalam, Kodangavila, Manacaud, Chittatumukku, Kallara, Vellanad, Sreekaryam, Beemapalli, Plamootukada, Perumbazhuthoor, and Karamana. Two of the deceased were below the age of 40. With this, the COVID-19 death toll in the district has risen to 329.
Source untraced
Of the new cases reported on Thursday, local transmission accounted for 350 cases. In 295 cases, the source of infection could not be immediately ascertained by health officials.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, during his customary COVID-19 briefing, said that the district had witnessed a decline in cases over the past one week. “The number of cases where the source of infection is unknown also has come down. There is no shortage of beds in hospitals in the district,” he said on Thursday. At the same time, the important thing is to reduce the chance of local transmission, he said.
In all, 302 women and 377 men tested positive over the past 24 hours. The list included 68 children below the age of 15 and 125 persons above 60. In the first half of October alone, 1,251 children below the age 15 have tested positive in the district, 535 of them in the past one week. Fifteen more health workers have been diagnosed with COVID-19.
775 recoveries
The number of recoveries stood at 775 on Thursday. As on Thursday, 11,068 persons were being treated for COVID-19 in Thiruvananthapuram district. In all, 2,861 persons were newly quarantined while 3,295 others completed the surveillance period without developing symptoms of the disease. As many as 30,845 persons are under disease surveillance at the moment.
The City police booked 36 persons under the Kerala Epidemic Diseases Ordinance, 2020, for not complying with COVID-19 guidelines. Action was taken against 252 others for not wearing masks and failing to maintain physical distancing in public places.