Kerala could be witnessing a surge in COVID-19 soon, going by the previous weeks’ (December first week) trend when new cases, which had shown a negative growth all through November, suddenly showed an increase by 5.6%.
Case doubling time trends and test positivity rates, two key indicators of the rate of infection or the spread of the virus, have gone up in many districts like Pathanamthitta, Thrissur, Wayanad, Malappuram and Kottayam.
4,698 new cases
On Sunday, the State reported 4,698 new cases of COVID-19, when 46,375 samples were tested in 24 hours, taking the State’s cumulative caseload to 6,69,330 cases.
Test positivity rate has shown a rising trend for the past three days and touched 10.13% on Sunday, indicating steady rate of disease transmission, which could be set to climb.
5,258 recoveries
The State reported 5,258 recoveries on the day.
The active case pool of the State now stands at 59,438 cases, with cumulative recoveries numbering 6,07,119.
The addition of 29 new deaths to the official COVID death list on Sunday puts the State’s cumulative COVID toll at 2,623.
Malappuram reported five of these deaths, Thiruvananthapuram and Kannur four each, three each in Thrissur and Kozhikode, two each in Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha and Ernakulam and one death each was reported from Palakkad, Idukki, Wayanad and Kasaragod.
Of the new cases reported on Sunday, 4,605 are locally acquired infections while in 93 cases, a travel history outside the State was reported.
In 528 cases, no epidemiological link to infection could be established.
The number of health-care workers who got infected is 43.
District-wise
Among districts, Malappuram continues to report the highest number of cases with 649 cases, Kozhikode 612, Ernakulam 509, Thrissur 438, Kottayam 416, Palakkad 307, Kollam 269, Kannur 267, Thiruvananthapuram 254, Wayanad 234, Pathanamthitta 229, Idukki 222, Aalapuzha 218 and Kasaragod 74 cases.