Kerala reported 4,584 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday when 67,506 samples were tested over the past 24 hours, taking the State’s cumulative case burden to 10,21,432 cases. The test positivity rate remained more or less constant at 6.79%
Of the 67,506 tests done by the State, 41,165 were rapid antigen assay while the RT-PCR tests dropped to 23,904 tests. Other molecular diagnostic tests like Truenat, CBNAAT , constituted the remaining tests.
The active case pool of the State now has 60,178 people, with 5,193 people ons reported to have recovered from the disease.
The cumulative recoveries reported in Kerala till date has risen to 9,56,935.
On Thursday, 14 more deaths were added to the official list of COVID fatalities, taking the State’s COVID toll ever since the pandemic began to 4,046 deaths.
Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode reported three deaths each, Thrissur and Malappuram two each, while Pathanamthitta, Kottayam, Ernakulam and Palakkad reported one death each.
As on Thursday, official reports said that the number of critically ill COVID patients being treated in ICUs in various hospitals across the State was 756 with 228 of them requiring ventilator support
Among districts, Kozhikode reported the maximum number of new cases with 638 cases, Ernakulam 609, Malappuram 493, Pathanamthitta 492, Kollam 366, Kottayam 361, Thrissur 346, Thiruvananthapuram 300, Alappuzha 251, Kannur 211, Kasaragod 176, Wayanad 133, Palakkad 130 and Idukki 78cases.
With two more travellers from UK testing positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, a total of 86 people who reached the State from UK since mid-December have tested positive for COVID-19. Official reports said that 71 of them have since tested negative.
So far, only 10 persons had tested positive for the virus variant B.1.1.7 first reported in UK and said to be highly transmissible.