New cases of COVID-19 in Kerala slumped by nearly half on Monday at 4,138, when testing also dipped by as much to 33,345 samples.
This followed the trend with testing invariably going down on Sunday. The test positivity rate, at 12.4 %, more or less remained stabilised over the past week or more. The State registered more recoveries than new cases on Monday, with 7,108 patients leaving hospitals .
While the cumulative case burden of the State went up to 4,44,268 cases, the good recovery rate of patients over the past week was reflected in the active case pool, which dropped to 86,681 cases. The total recoveries in the State were 3,55,943.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the State’s weekly increase in cases dipped by 5% and the cumulative case doubling period increased to 40 days.
At the current growth rate, the case graph had hit a plateau and it would take weeks for the State’s active case pool to cross the one lakh mark. The recovery rate had also been high, helping the State’s hospitals from getting swamped.
The current cases per million population ratio, at 12,329 was more than double the national average of 5,963. However, the case fatality rate remains at 0.34 %, much lower than the national average of 1.49%.
The addition of 21 new COVID deaths took the State’s total toll to 1,533. Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam reported four deaths each, Alapuzha and Ernakulam three each, Thrissur two and one case reach by Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur and Kottayam.
Official figures put the number of COVID-19 patients who were critically ill and in ICUs at 803, with 224 requiring ventilator support.
Of the new cases reported on Monday, 4,084 cases (98.6%) were locally acquired infections, with the source of infection remaining untraced in 438 cases. The number of healthcare workers who contracted the infection in this is 47.
Among districts, Kozhikode reported 576 cases, Ernakulam 518, Alapuzha 498, Malappuram 467, Thrissur 433, Thiruvananthapuram 361, Kollam 350, Palakkad 286, Kottayam 246, Kannur 195, Idukki 60, Kasaragod 58, Wayanad 46 and Pathanamthitta 44 cases.
Mr. Vijayan said that the Government was in touch with pharma firms, Reddy’s Laboratories and Serum Institute of India Ltd. regarding the Government’s willingness to conduct vaccine trials in the State. However, the former was yet to launch any clinical trials in the State. The latter had been provided details regarding the Government Medical Colleges at Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur and Kottayam. The State would take necessary steps and move forward on the vaccine trials, he added.
He said that the Health department had launched a new campaign utilising all modern means of communication to reinforce the importance of wearing masks to protect oneself and one’s family.
Telangana reported less than a thousand cases on Sunday from fewer tests than normal. Usually, around 40,000 samples were tested, but on Sunday, the number fell to 25,643, leading to detection of 922 positive cases. The results of 415 were awaited.
The 922 new cases included 256 from Greater Hyderabad, 56 from Rangareddy and 44 from Sangareddy.
From March 2 to November 1, a total of 43,49,309 samples were tested and 2,40,970 were found to be positive. Of the total cases, 17,630 were active and 2,21,992 had recovered. With the death of seven more patients, the toll touched 1,348.
Karnataka on Monday reported 2,576 new cases taking its total to 8,29,640. With 29 new deaths, the toll rose to 11,221.
As many as 8,334 persons were discharged on Monday taking the total number of recoveries to 7,73,595. Of the remaining 48,805 active cases, 931 patients are being monitored in the ICUs. While the positivity rate for the day further stood at 3.28%, Case Fatality Rate (CFR) touched 1.12%.
Bengaluru Urban reported 1,439 cases taking the tally to 3,40,075. With 14 of the 29 deaths from Bengaluru, the toll in this district rose to 3,888. Active cases in Bengaluru reduced to 26,098.
As many as 78,496 tests were conducted including 65,015 RT-PCR tests. With this the total number rose to 80,91,137.
Andhra Pradesh recorded 1,916 new cases and 13 deaths on Monday, taking the tally to 8,27,882 and toll to 6,719.
The daily positivity rate of 64,581 samples was the lowest in four months at 2.97%. The overall positivity rate was 10.13% for 81.75 lakh samples.
The death rate remained at 0.81% and the recovery rate at 96.47%. In the past day, 3,033 patients recovered, leaving 22,538 patients active and under treatment. So far, 7,98,625 patients recovered from the illness. The tests per million ratio increased to 1.53 lakh.
Of the 13 new deaths, three each were reported from Anantapur and Krishna districts and one each from West Godavari, East Godavari, Guntur, Prakasam, Kadapa, Chittoor, and Srikakulam districts. Other districts reported no new deaths.
While five districts reported less than 100 new cases, West Godavari reported the highest at 426, East Godavari (354), Guntur (179), Prakasam (178), Kadapa (141), Chittoor (121), Anantapur (106), Visakhapatnam (105), Nellore (93), Krishna (68), Srikakulam (68), Vizianagaram (55), and Kurnool (22).
The district-wise tallies were: East Godavari (1,16,389), West Godavari (86,449), Chittoor (78,886), Guntur (67,786), Anantapur (64,835), Prakasam (59,834), Nellore (59,685), Kurnool (59,530), Visakhapatnam (56,003), and Kadapa (52,346),
Srikakulam (44,095), Krishna (39,720) and Vizianagaram (39,429).
(With inputs from Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Vijayawada bureaus)