Kerala’s COVID-19 case graph continued to climb, with the State reporting 41,971 new cases on Saturday, when 1,48,546 samples were tested in 24 hours. The average test positivity rate again rose to 28.25%.
The active case pool of the State, which has crossed four lakh, now has 4,17,101 patients.
A record number of 64 recent deaths were added to the State’s official toll on Saturday, taking the cumulative death toll due to COVID-19 to 5,746.
This included 13 deaths from Thrissur, 12 each from Pathanamthitta and Kannur, 11 from Ernakulam, 10 from Kollam, three from Wayanad, two from Alappuzha, and one from Kottayam. The number of COVID-19 patients currently being treated in hospitals has risen to 30,262.
ICU admissions have been rising at an alarming rate in the State since the past two days and a total of 2,505 persons are occupying ICUs across the State now, which could be tipping towards a crisis situation wherein the ICU surge capacity might soon be breached.
Ventilator support
On Friday, if 274 critically ill persons newly entered ICUs in a single day on Friday, Saturday was no better with 182 persons getting admitted to ICUs. The patients who were newly put on ventilator support on Saturday was 98. A total of 1,236 COVID patients are on ventilator support now. At present, 10,50,745 persons have been put on home or institutional isolation.
On Saturday, 27,456 patients were declared to have recovered from COVID and let off from hospitals/institutions. The total recoveries till date is 14,43,633. The cumulative case burden of the State now stands at 18,66,827.
Ernakulam continues to have the highest number of active cases with 65,856 patients, followed by Kozhikode (52,638), Malappuram (46,183), Thrissur (48,718) and Thiruvananthapuram (36,480).
Thiruvananthapuram has the highest number of hospitalised patients at 4,374, while Ernakulam has 4,263.
Among districts, Ernakulam reported the highest number of new cases with 5,492, Thiruvananthapuram 4,560, Malappuram 4,558, Thrissur 4,230, Kozhikode 3,981, Palakkad 3,216, Kannur 3,090, Kollam 2,838, Alappuzha 2,433, Kottayam 2,395, Kasaragod 1,749, Wayanad 1,196, Pathanamthitta 1,180 and Idukki 1,053 cases.
