Four persons on Saturday tested positive for COVID-19 in the State, while two patients, who had been undergoing treatment, were cured of the disease.
Three of the cases were reported in persons who had returned from Dubai, while one case was that of a person who had developed the infection through contact.
Three cases are located in Kannur, while one is in Kozhikode. Of the 399 COVID-19 cases reported so far, only 140 are currently undergoing treatment in hospitals. A total of 257 persons have recovered from the disease, while the State had lost two persons to the disease.
District-wise figures
The number of persons currently under surveillance has dwindled to 67,190, of whom 66,686 are in home quarantine. Only 504 persons with mild symptoms are isolated in hospitals The district-wise figures of COVID-19 patients undergoing treatment now are as follows: Thiruvananthapuram 2, Kollam 5, Pathanamthitta 6, Alappuzha 2, Ernakulam 2, Thrissur 1, Palakkad 2, Malappuram 7, Kozhikode 13, Wayanad 1, Kannur 50, Kasaragod 49.
In a bid to ramp up testing facilities, four more medical colleges have been equipped with real-time PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) laboratories. The lab at the Ernakulam Government Medical College started functioning on Saturday after securing approval from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), while those at the Kottayam, Kannur and Manjeri medical colleges are awaiting clearance, Health Minister K.K. Shylaja said.
As on Saturday, a total of 11 government laboratories are conducting tests for COVID-19. Apart from the Ernakulam Medical College, the National Institute of Virology, Alappuzha; the medical colleges in Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode and Thrissur; Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology; State Public Health Laboratory; Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology; Malabar Cancer Centre; Inter University Centre for Biomedical Research, Kottayam; and Central University, Kasaragod; are the other testing centres in the State. Two private laboratories in Kozhikode and Ernakulam are also part of the testing network. The new labs were equipped with the 10 real-time PCR machines procured to speed up the pace of testing.
