With fresh COVID-19 cases continuing to surge, Kerala’s tally breached the 10,000 mark and the death toll climbed to 37 with two more fatalities on Thursday. The state reported 722 fresh cases, the first time that the daily spike crossed 700, as the total infection count touched 10,275, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told reporters here.
A 39-year-old man, who had come from Ahmedabad, and a 25-year-old employee of the cargo division in the Chennai airport succumbed to the virus. Twelve heath workers, including five doctors from the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital, three Border Security Force and three Indo-Tibetian Border Police personnel are among the infected on Thursday.
As many as 228 people recovered from the infection and the active cases stood at 5,432. Of the new cases, a total of 157 had come from abroad, 62 from other states and 481 were infected through contact. The source of 34 patients was not yet known,Vijayan said.
Thiruvananthapuram continued to see a spike in COVID-19 cases with 339 cases being reported on Thursday, followed by Ernakulam district (57) and Kollam and Malappuram 42each. At least 1,83,900 people are under observation, 5,432 are in various hospitals, including 804 admitted on Thursday.
So far, 2,68,128 samples have been tested and results of 7,797 samples are awaited, the chief minister said. There were 271 hotspots and 84 clusters, including ten large community clusters. With cases rising, the state will ramp up testing facilitiesand efforts were being made to speed up the results, he said adding first-line treatment centres were
being set up in all panchayats.
