An addition of 1,899 new COVID-19 cases to the State’s tally on Thursday has taken Kerala’s cumulative case burden ever since the pandemic began, to 10,98,291 cases.
With 54,314 samples tested in the past 24 hours, the test positivity rate on Thursday was 3.5%.
Despite the State’s attempts to augment the RT PCR rates by at least 30,000 tests, over and above the 25,000-odd tests done daily, by outsourcing the tests to private mobile labs across the State, the number of RT PCR tests have remained more or less around 30,000. On Thursday, the number of RT PCR tests done were 27,041 only
With 2,119 recoveries being reported, the active case pool dipped to 25,158 cases. The cumulative recoveries reported by the State ever since the pandemic began has risen to 10,68,378.
The addition of 15 new deaths which took place in the past few days to the official list of COVID fatalities in the State on Thursday took the State’s cumulative COVID toll till date to 4,450 deaths.
Thrissur reported six deaths, Kannur three, while two deaths each were reported from Malappuram, Ernakulam and Idukki.
The number of critically ill COVID patients in the State who are currently being treated in ICUs in various hospitals in the State has come to 487 on Thursday, according to official reports, with 143 of them requiring ventilator assistance.
Of the 1,899 new cases reported on Thursday, 1,662 cases are believed to be locally acquired infections, through contact with other infected persons. This includes infections reported in 19 health workers. In 64 cases, the Health Department has reported a history of travel to other States. No history of travel or contact with infected persons are reported or known in the case of 173 infections
Among districts, Kozhikode reported the maximum number of new cases with 213 cases, Thiruvananthapuram 200, Kollam 188, Ernakulam 184, Kannur 161, Kottayam 158, Pathanamthitta 148, Malappuram 146, Thrissur 131, Alappuzha 121, Kasaragod 104, Palakkad 67, Idukki 54 and Wayanad 24 cases.
