Kerala reported 6,169 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, when 61,437 samples were tested, taking the State’s cumulative burden to 7,21,510 cases.
The test positivity rate (TPR) touched 10.04%.
The State’s active case pool, which has been rising for the past one week, now has 62,802 cases. With 4,808 recoveries reported on Wednesday, the cumulative number of recoveries in the State now stands at 6,55,644.
The graph of new COVID-19 cases has been rising in the State since the second week of December. Health Department’s weekly epidemiological report states that when the State reported 32,938 new cases between December 7-13, it went up by over 3,600 cases to report 36,539 new cases between December 14 and 20.
Between December 14 and 20, new cases reported per week went up significantly in Ernakulam, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Thiruvananthapuram, Kottayam, Thrissur, Kasaragod, Palakkad, and Wayanad, when compared to the previous week.
In the same week, the TPR increased significantly in Ernakulam (10.2%), Kollam (9.4%), Kottayam (13%), and Pathanamthitta (9.2%). TPR was the lowest in Thiruvananthapuram (6.3%) and Kasaragod (6.9%).
On Wednesday, 22 more deaths were added to the official COVID death list, taking the State’s COVID toll till date to 2,892. Thiruvananthapuram and Malappuram reported four cases each, Kollam and Alapuzha three each, Kasaragod two, and Ernakulam, Pathanamthitta, Kottayam, Palakkad, Wayanad, and Kozhikode reported one death each.
841 in ICUs
Official bulletin puts the number of critically ill COVID patients in various ICUs in the State at 841, with 221 patients on ventilator support.
Of the 6,169 new cases, a history of travel outside the State was reported in 98 cases while the remaining 6,071 are locally acquired infections, with the source of infection remaining untraced in 662 cases. The number of health-care workers who contracted COVID-19 amongst this is 60.
Among districts, Ernakulam reported 953 cases, Kottayam 642, Kozhikode 605, Thrissur 564, Malappuram 500, Kollam 499, Alapuzha 431, Pathanamthitta 406, Thiruvananthapuram 404, Palakkad 367, Wayanad 260, Idukki 242, Kannur 228, and Kasaragod 68 cases.
