For a second successive day, Kerala saw 600-plus new cases reported in a day. Wednesday saw the highest-ever number of cases recorded, 623 taking the total number of active cases in the state to 4,880.
Since the first case in the country was registered at Thrissur on January 30, Kerala has seen a tally of 9,553 cases. On Tuesday, the state reported 603 new cases.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan cautioned that 60% of the cases that are being registered now are asymptomatic.
"This is dangerous and it means this can spread from anyone to anyone. Of the 623 cases in the day, 432 were local infectees and of them, the source of infection in 37 cases is not traced," said Vijayan.
The state capital district, Thiruvananthapuram, is witnessing an unprecedented spike and of the 157 positive cases on Wednesday, 130 were local infections.
The CM also said that the Greenfield International Stadium complex has been taken over and converted to a COVID-19 first-line treatment centre with 600 beds set up at this facility.
On Wednesday, the state had 16 new hotspots, taking the total to 234.
The Chief Minister said around 5.81 lakh people have by now returned from abroad and within the country.
He also said that the government will soon distribute over Rs 1,320 crore by way of social welfare and other pensions to over 48 lakh people, for the months of May and June.
Thiruvananthapuram reported 137 contact cases followed by Ernakulam (64), Kozhikode (63), Kasaragod (57), Pathanamthitta (42), Idukki (23), Kottayam (21), Kollam (8), Alappuzha (6), Malappuram (4), Kannur (3), Thrissur (2) and Palakkad (2).
In the past 24 hours, the state tested 16,444 samples that were collected. The state has so far tested 2,60,356 samples till date, the test results of 7,485 samples are pending.