The State on Sunday reported 5,266 new cases of COVID-19 when 48,118 samples were tested in the past 24 hours. The cumulative case burden has risen to 9,29,178 cases.
Test positivity rate on the day stands at 10.94%, more or less the same level it has been since the past two weeks.
There were more recoveries than new cases, with 5,730 patients reported to have tested negative. With the good number of recoveries, the active case pool has come down slightly at 70,983. The cumulative recoveries reported till date has risen to 8,54,206.
The addition of 21 new deaths to the official list has taken the toll to 3,743 deaths.
Ernakulam continues to report the highest number of new cases at 743. Among other districts, Kozhikode reported 650, Kottayam 511, 822, Pathanamthitta 496, Kollam 484, Malappuram 482, Thrissur 378, Alappuzha 371, Thiruvananthapuram 300, Kannur 230, Palakkad 211, Idukki 187, Wayanad 153 and Kasaragod 70.
U.K. variant
A total of 77 persons who reached the State from U.K. since December 23 have so far tested positive. Of these, the samples of 56 have turned negative. The presence of the SARS CoV2 variant first reported in U.K., B.1.1.7, which is believed to be highly transmissible, has so far been found in 10 samples.