The State reported 28,514 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, when 1,26,028 samples were tested in the past 24 hours. The test positivity rate is slowing down and registered 22.63%.
Deaths are rising and will continue for the next two weeks even though disease transmission is beginning to go down, as the State is just past the peak of the epidemic. The cumulative fatalities, according to official figures, crossed the 7,000 mark on Saturday and totalled 7,170, when 176 new deaths were added to the official list.
The active case pool, which had gone up to 4.45 lakh cases 10 days ago, has now declined to 2,89,283. On Saturday, 45,400 persons were reported to have recovered from the disease, taking the cumulative recoveries to 20,25,319.
However, much of these recoveries are reported in patients with mild COVID illness and who are mostly recovering at home or an institution. Hospital admission continues to remain high, indicating that patients with moderate or severe disease are continuing to occupy hospital beds and ICUs and that their recovery period is prolonged.
As many as 3, 383 persons were newly admitted in hospitals. At present, 38,743 patients are being treated for moderate or severe COVID in hospitals. Total ICU admissions of critically ill patients in both public and private hospitals has risen to 3,964, while the number of those on ventilator support has shot up to 1,513.
In Thiruvananthapuram district, while the active case pool has significantly come down to 20,695 patients, hospitalisations are rising. It has the maximum number of patients in hospitals at 6,130..
The cumulative case burden of the State ever since the pandemic began, now stands at 23,22,146 cases.
Among districts, Malappuram reported the highest number of new cases with 3,932, Thiruvananthapuram 3,300, Ernakulam 3, 219, Palakkad 3,020, Kollam 2,423, Thrissur 2,404, Alappuzha 2,178, Kozhikode 1,971, Kottayam 1,750, Kannur 1,252, Idukki 9876, Pathanamthitta 877, Kasaragod 702 and Wayanad 499.
