Kerala reported 6,282 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, when 59,759 samples were tested in the past 24 hours.
Test positivity rate on the day was 10.51%, clearly indicating that disease transmission levels are remaining more or less steady in the State.
The cumulative case burden of the State has risen to 9.23,912 cases.
Kerala reported more recoveries than new cases on Saturday, with 7,032 patients reported to have tested negative. The active case pool of the State, which was going up slowly since the past few days, came down marginally to 71,469. The cumulative recoveries reported in the State till date has risen to 8,48,476.
The addition of 18 new deaths on Saturday to the official list of COVID fatalities has taken the State’s toll ever since the pandemic began to 3,722 deaths.
Thrissur reported seven deaths, Kozhikode three, Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam two each, while one death each was reported from Alappuzha, Malappuram, Wayanad and Kannur.
The number of critically ill COVID patients in the State who are currently being treated in ICUs in various hospitals in the State is 776 on Saturday, according to official reports, with 228 of them requiring ventilator assistance.
Among districts, Ernakulam continues to report the highest number of cases in the State with 859 cases, Kozhikode 822, Kollam 688, Pathanamthitta 556, Alappuzha 526, Thrissur 524, Kottayam 487, Malappuram 423, Thiruvananthapuram 350, Kannur 321, Palakkad 256, Wayanad 187, Idukki 181, and Kasaragod 102 cases.
UK variant
A total of 76 persons who reached the State from the UK have so far tested COVID-19 positive, of whom the samples of 10, following genomic analysis, have been found to have the presence of B.1.1.7, the SARS CoV2 variant first reported in UK, which is believed to be highly transmissible.
