With Kerala reporting 91,889 patients to be under treatment presently for COVID-19, the state now has the second highest active patients in the country, only behind Maharashtra. Since the past five days, Kerala is also recording the highest single-day COVID-19 cases in the country.
Though Maharashtra has a total of 1.28 lakh active patients, the number of daily COVID-19 cases being reported there has been less than that of Kerala in the past few days.
The total infection count in Kerala, including the recovered patients and deaths reported, climbed to 4,05,545. The death toll alone stands at 1,430 with 26 more deaths reported on Thursday.
Of the fresh cases reported on Thursday, 168 people had come from outside the state, 6,037 were infected through contact and the source of infection of 734 people was yet to be known, Chief Minister Pinarayi said on Thursday. Thrissur district reported the highest number of cases on Thursday at 964, followed by Ernakulam 594 and Thiruvananthapuram 625, he said.
The Union government on Thursday advised states witnessing a spike in COVID-19 cases, including Kerala, Delhi and West Bengal, to ramp up the testing, tracking and treatment strategy during the festive season and put an additional thrust on public awareness as well as enforcement of COVID-appropriate behaviour.
"Thrissur, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Pathanamthitta, Malappuram are the top districts showing an increasing trend in coronavirus cases. The state has demonstrated better results in terms of COVID-19 fatality. The fatality rate stood at 0.34 per cent, although there has been an increase in weekly deaths in Thrissur (133%), Kollam (75%), Alappuzha (31%), Ernakulam (30%), and Kannur (15%),” the health ministry said.
Noting that the increase in new cases due to festivities was a matter of grave concern, Kerala has been suggested to ramp up information, education and communication (IEC) practices and promote mask-wearing with more rigour, it added.
"While Kerala has been monitoring contact tracing activities across borders with neighbouring districts and states, certain districts with very high positivity rates, like Malappuram, need to enforce better management," the Ministry said.
Meanwhile, CM Pinarayi said that incidents of people not wearing masks have been increasing of late and that there is a need to start another campaign highlighting the need to wear them.
(With PTI inputs)