Malappuram saw the biggest single-day spike in COVID-19 cases when 454 people in the district tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 on Tuesday.
As many as 428 of them were found to have contracted the disease by local transmission.
District Collector K. Gopalakrishnan exhorted people to exercise extra caution and asked them not to get out of homes except for emergencies and necessities.
The source of infection in 27 cases, including 12 health workers, could not be traced. While 20 of the newly infected came from abroad, six came from other States.
Nearly 43,000 people are currently quarantined in the district. There were 240 recoveries in Malappuram on Tuesday.
In Palakkad
In Palakkad district, 152 people tested positive on Tuesday. While 93 of them contracted the disease by local transmission, 30 came from other States and 12 from abroad. The source of infection in 17 cases could not be traced. District Collector D. Balamurali said 119 infected persons recovered from the disease on Tuesday.
