Kerala: Daily count nears 9,000, total cases closer to 2 lakh

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the highest single-day count of 8,830 on Wednesday, the state is edging closer to two lakhs in total Covid-19 positive cases. The tally is at 1,96,106 with 67,061 active and under treatment.
The test positivity rate is at 13.86 and there are 438 patients in ICUs and 92 on ventilator support. The state tested 63,682 samples, which was also the highest recorded in 24 hours.Of the total cases in the day, 8,608 were infected through contacts while the sources of 784 are yet to be known. Besides, 123 healthcare workers and six coast guard personnel from INSH were also among the infected.
The recovery count in the day stood at 3,536 while 23 more deaths were reported, taking the toll to 743. The deceased are Vasantha (68), Murali (55), Nataraja Sundaram (91), Sasidharan Nair (77), Abdul Tahir (68) and Padmakuar (49) of Thiruvananthapuram, Thankamma Varghese (75), Shari Rajan (47) and P Omana (63) of Alappuzha, Sasidharan (65) of Pathanamthitta, Annamma (65) of Kottayam, Leela (82) of Ernakulam, Lekhsmi (75), Ammini (58), Gopalakrishnan (78), Krishna Das (55), Thankappan (68), Rafeeq (35), Ramankutty (80) and Mohanan (61), Prema (51) and Sainuddhin (63) of Malappuram and Parameswara Acharya (68) of Kasaragod. Ernakulam recorded 1,056 new cases followed by 986 in Thiruvananthapuram, 977 in Malappuram, 942 in Kozhikode, 812 in Kollam, 808 in Thrissur, 679 in Alappuzha, 631 in Palakkad, 519 in Kannur, 442 in Kottayam, 321 in Kasargod, 286 in Pathanamthitta, 214 in Wayanad and 157 in Idukki.
Among the healthcare workers, who were infected through contacts, 33 were from Kannur, 32 from Thiruvananthapuram, 13 from Kasaragod, 11from Kottayam, six from Ernakulam, five each from Pathanamthitta and Wayanad, four each from Kollam and Thrissur, three each from Alappuzha and Palakkad, and two each from Malappuram and Kozhikode.
To date, a total of 1,28,224 have recovered from Covid-19 in the state. On Wednesday, 3,468 were admitted to the hospitals.The state has 660 hotspots with 15 new places added and another 15 excluded from the list.