Kerala on Thursday, August 6, recorded the highest single day spike in COVID-19 cases with 1298 new cases. With three more deaths confirmed as caused by the disease, the total number of COVID-19 deaths in the state has reached 97. The deceased are Khadeeja (51), a native of Manjeswaram in Kasaragod who died on July 31, Shaharbanu (73), a native of Uppala in Kasaragod who died on August 2 and Silva Adimai (63), a native of Vizhinjam in Thiruvananthapuram who died on August 5. The examination at the National Institute of Virology in Alappuzha confirmed that COVID-19 caused the deaths.
Thiruvananthapuram has the highest caseload with 219 cases while Kozhikode reported 174 cases. Kasaragod has 153 cases, Palakkad 136, Malappuram 129, Alappuzha 99, Thrissur 74, Ernakulam 73, Idukki 58, Wayanad 46, Kottayam 40, Pathanathamthitta and Kannur 33 each and Kollam reported 31 cases.
A total of 1017 people have contracted the disease through contact while the epidemiological link of 76 people is not known. 78 of the infected people have returned from foreign countries and 170 from other states.
In Thiruvananthapuram, 210 people got infected through contact. 29 health workers also tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Thursday. Among these, eight are from Kasaragod, seven from Thiruvananthapuram, five are from Kozhikode, three from Ernakulam, two from Wayanad, and one each from Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Malappuram and Kannur districts.
Three employees of the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) and one staff of INHS Ernakulam also have been infected.
Meanwhile the state saw 800 recoveries too. With this, the number of active cases stand at 11,983 while the number of recovered cases is 18,337.
The number of people under surveillance in the state is 1,48,039. Of this 1,36,602 are either in institutional or home quarantine and 11,437 are in hospitals. 1390 people admitted to hospitals on Thursday. 25,205 samples were tested in the last 24 hours.
A total of 9,08,335 samples - under routine sample, airport surveillance, pooled sentinel, CB Nat, True Nat, CLIA and antigen test have been sent for examination so far. Of this, results of 6336 samples are yet to be returned. As many as 1,32,306 samples have been sent for examination as a part of sentinel surveillance -- from those who are more exposed to the virus infection. Of these, results of 1615 samples are awaited.
On July 31, Kerala reported 1310 cases, but the figure had been a cumulative one, 425 cases were that of July 30. The July 30 bulletin didn’t include the 425 cases due technical glitches.
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