Kerala’s COVID-19 case graph appeared to show signs of a dip, as new cases reported on Thursday dropped to 5,537 from the testing of 57,202 samples. The test positivity rate dipped to 9.68%.
Public health experts, however, cautioned that it would take several peaks and troughs before the curve truly went down, and the virus would remain until a significant proportion of the population was infected or a vaccine helped achieve herd immunity. The case dip could be misread and lead to lax safety precautions.
The State added 25 more deaths, taking the COVID toll till date to 1,796.
Of the new deaths, Kozhikode accounted for five, Palakkad, Thrissur, Ernakulam, Alappuzha and Thiruvananthapuram three each, and Kollam two, while Kottayam, Malappuram and Kannur reported one death each.
Thrissur district reported 727 cases, Kozhikode 696, Malappuram 617, Alapuzha 568, Ernakulam 489, Palakkad 434, Kollam 399, Thiruvananthapuram 386, Kannur 346, Kottayam 344, Idukki 185, Pathanamthitta 138, Kasaragod 108 and Wayanad 100 cases.
Andhra Pradesh added 1,728 cases on Thursday. For the first time in four months, less than 10 deaths were reported, as nine fatalities were recorded.
The number of samples tested moved closer to 90 lakh, as 77,148 samples were tested with a positivity rate of 2.24%. The overall test positivity rate was 9.51%. Chittoor reported three new deaths while Krishna reported two new deaths. Anantapur, East Godavari, Guntur and West Godavari reported one fresh death each and the remaining seven districts reported no new deaths.
The district-wise new cases were as follows: East Godavari (290), West Godavari (239), Krishna (223), Chittoor (206), Anantapur (99), Nellore (91), Prakasam (88), Kadapa (85), Visakhapatnam (74), Srikakulam (43), Vizianagaram (42) and Kurnool (36).
Telangana recorded 1,015 COVID-19 cases on Wednesday. The number of cases dropped from 1,196 on November 10.
However, the number of tests too dropped from 44,635 on that day, to 40,603 the next day.
The State saw fewer fatalities with three deaths reported on November 11.
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation area reported 172 cases, Rangareddy district 98 cases, Medchal Malkajgiri district 97, and Bhadradri Kothgudem 80.
Karnataka on Thursday reported 2,116 fresh cases and 21 deaths. While the positivity rate for the day stood at 1.83%, the Case Fatality Rate (CFR) touched 0.99%.
Bengaluru Urban district reported 1,069 cases, taking its tally to 3,54,215. With eight deaths coming from Bengaluru, the toll there rose to 3,985.
As many as 1,15,386 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, including 88,100 RT-PCR tests.
(With inputs from Thiruvananthapuram, Vijayawada, Hyderabad and Bengaluru bureaus)
