The State reported 18,853 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday when 1,28,885 samples were tested in the past 24 hours. The test positivity rate (TPR), which had been staying around 15% for the past three days, registered 15.22% on Thursday.
The State’s active case pool, which had gone beyond 4.5 lakh before the lockdown, has now come below 2 lakh. As many as 26,569 patients were reported to have recovered on Thursday, bringing the active case pool down to 1,84,292 cases.
153 deaths
The State added 153 deaths to the official list of COVID-19 deaths on Thursday, taking the cumulative fatalities in the State to 9,375. It may be noted that these are not deaths reported in the past 24 hours but which occurred over the past several days.
Hospitalisations and ICU occupancy are finally beginning to dip. From an average of 3,500 daily hospitalisations, the number has come down below 3,000 and the trend has remained the same for the past four or five days.
On Thursday, 2,907 persons were hospitalised with COVID-19. The total number of patients being treated for moderate or severe disease in hospitals in the State has also dipped to 36,177.
ICU admissions
Total ICU admissions of critically ill patients in both public and private hospitals also seem to be dipping steadily and has come down to 3,611. The number of patients requiring ventilator support dropped to 1,472.
The active case pool is dwindling in all districts. In Thiruvananthapuram district, the active case pool has come down to 14,125. Hospitalisation of COVID-19 patients has been dipping in the district too and the numbers came down from 5,805 on Wednesday to 5,773 on Thursday.
The cumulative case burden of the State ever since the pandemic began, now stands at 25,84,853 cases.
Among districts, Malappuram reported the highest number of new cases on Thursday with 2,448, Kollam 2,272, Palakkad 2,201, Thiruvananthapuram 2,150, Ernakulam 2,041, Thrissur 1,766, Alappuzha 1,337, Kozhikode 1,198, Kannur 856, Kottayam 707, Pathanamthitta 585, Kasaragod 560, Idukki 498 and Wayanad 234 cases.