With lower testing on Monday, a public holiday, Kerala’s COVID-19 cases on Tuesday again remained lower than in the recent past.
The State reported 5,457 cases on Tuesday from 46,193 samples. The test positivity rate was down to 11.8% on Monday from the 12-14 % range.
The authorities added 20 deaths to the toll. Thrissur reported six deaths, Ernakulam four, Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam three each, while Idukki, Palakkad, Malappuram and Kasaragod reported one case each.
Thrissur district reported 730 cases, Ernakulam 716, Malappuram 706, Alapuzha 647, Kozhikode 597, Thiruvananthapuram 413, Kottayam 395, Palakkad 337, Kollam 329, Kannur 258, Pathanamthitta 112, Wayanad 103, Kasaragod 65 and Idukki 49 cases.
The active case pool in Thiruvananthapuram grew smaller, from over 12,000 cases to 8,587. Ernakulam and Malappuram had maximum active cases.
Telangana recorded 837 cases on Monday as 21,099 people were tested, while four patients died. The 837 new cases included 185 from Greater Hyderabad, 76 from Khammam, 59 from Rangareddy and 51 from Karimnagar. Just one case was detected in Narayanpet and five in Kumram-Bheem Asifabad district.
Andhra Pradesh reported 2,901 new cases and 19 fresh deaths on Tuesday. The death toll increased to 6,625 while the death rate remained 0.82%.
Kurnool, Vizianagaram and Nellore together had only 1,126 active cases as of Tuesday while other districts had not less than 1,000 active cases. The daily test positivity rate was 3.88% from 74,757 samples tested, and the overall positivity rate of 76.96 lakh tests was 10.55%. The tests per million ratio was 1.44 lakh.
The district-wise new cases and deaths were as follows: West Godavari (555 and 1), East Godavari (464 and 2), Krishna (411 and 3), Guntur (385 and 1), Chittoor (272 and 3), Prakasam (153 and 2), Anantapur (153 and 1), Kadapa (127 and 4), Visakhapatnam (106 and 1), Nellore (76 and 0), Srikakulam (73 and 0), Vizianagaram (71 and 0) and Kurnool (55 and 1).
Karnataka’s tests declined for the second consecutive day. On Monday, 66,701 tests were conducted leading to detection of 3,691 new cases on Tuesday. On Sunday, tests stood at 65,862, in contrast to the one lakh in previous days.
Of the 3,691 fresh cases, 1,874 were reported in Bengaluru Urban. However, the positivity rate for the day remained at 5.53 %.
Dr C.N. Manjunath, nodal officer, labs and testing, Covid-19 task force, said that the number of tests may have declined due to the holiday and the festive season. He argued that the positivity rate was still around 5%. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, 44 deaths were reported.
(With inputs from Vijayawada, Hyderabad and Bengaluru bureaus)