COVID-19 testing continues to be a vexatious issue in the State as regardless of the Health Department’s resolve to increase testing significantly, the numbers remained below 50,000 on Monday.
Kerala reported 3,742 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday when just 47,927 tests were done in 24 hours, taking the State’s cumulative case burden to 9,72,180 cases. While 30,789 of these tests were rapid antigen assay, RT-PCR tests numbered 14,215, while other molecular diagnostic tests like Truenat, CBNAAT , constituted the remaining tests. The test positivity rate was 7.81%.
5,959 recoveries
With 5,959 patients reported to have recovered from their disease on the day, the active case pool in the State, dropped to 65,414 on the day. The cumulative recoveries reported in Kerala till date has risen to 9,02,627.
On Monday, 16 more deaths were added to the official list of COVID fatalities, taking the State’s total toll to 3,883 deaths.
Thiruvananthapuram reported four deaths, Thrissur and Kollam three each, Alappuzha and Kannur two each while Pathanamthitta and Ernakulam reported one death each.
As on Monday, official reports said that the number of critically ill COVID-19 patients being treated in ICUs in various hospitals across the State was 818 with 227 of them requiring ventilator support
Among districts, Malappuram reported the maximum number of cases at 503, Ernakulam 431, Kozhikode 403, Thiruvananthapuram 380, Kottayam 363, Kollam 333, Alappuzha 317, Thrissur 288, Pathanamthitta 244, Kannur 145, Idukki 126, Palakkad 102, Wayanad 71 and Kasaragod 36 cases.
U.K. variant
With one more traveller from the U.K. testing positive for COVID-19 in 24 hours, a total of 81 persons who reached the State from the U.K. since mid-December have tested positive for COVID-19. Official reports said that 62 of them have since tested negative.
So far, only 10 persons had tested positive for the virus variant B.1.1.7 first reported in the U.K. and said to be highly transmissible.
