Even as Kerala fought two disasters back to back – an air crash killing 18 people within hours of a landslide taking 18 other lives – the COVID-19 cases increased by another 1,420 on Saturday.
While it marks the highest number of fresh cases on a single day, Saturday also witnessed the most number of recoveries – 1,715.
Four people with COVID-19 lost their lives, taking the death toll of the state to 107.
"Uppala native Vinodkumar (41), who passed away on August 3, Kozhikode native Sulekha (63), who passed away on August 4, Kollam native Chellappan (60), who passed away on August 5 and Cherthala native Purushothaman (84) who passed away on August 6 tested positive," said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
Out of the 1,715 positive cases on Saturday, 1,216 were through contacts.
"The sources of at least 92 cases are yet to be identified. As many as 60 cases reached the state from abroad while 108 reached from other states," CM Pinarayi said, adding that 30 health workers were also among the infected.
A total of 1,48,241 people are under observation in the state out of which 11,934 are under observation in various hospitals across the state.
The state also tested 27,714 samples in the last 24 hours.
The government has categorised 13 more regions as hotspots while removing 21 others from that list. As of now, the state has 498 hotspots.
The Chief Minister also said the number of COVID-19 cases were increasing in Thiruvananthapuram district with a high number of contact cases.
"Today, 485 people were diagnosed with the disease in the district and of these, 435 were through contact. It shows that strong intervention is needed in the state capital to control the infection and stringent restrictions should be continued," he said.
The district-wise figures of active cases from other districts are - Kozhikode (173), Alappuzha (169), Malappuram (114), Ernakulam (101), Kasaragod (73), Thrissur (64), Kannur (57), Kollam and Idukki (41), Palakkad (39), Pathanamthitta (38), Kottayam (15) and Wayanad (10).
So far, 20,866 people have been cured of the virus in the State and at present, 12,109 patients are undergoing treatment.
(With PTI inputs)
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