Kerala clocks 12,742 fresh COVID-19 cases, 199 deaths

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala on Wednesday crossed the 10,000 mark in fresh COVID-19 cases after a gap of nearly three months, with the state reporting 12,742 new infections which raised the caseload to 53,04,022.

The southern state had reported 11,150 cases on October 20 last year and since then it has been logging less than 10,000 infections daily.

With 2,552 more people recovering from the virus since Tuesday, the total recoveries reached 52,07,762.

However, as the number of recoveries were much less than the new COVID-19 cases, the active cases in the state crossed the 50,000 mark to reach 54,430, a government release said.

Active cases in the state had dropped below 20,000 at one time before rising again over the last one week

Kerala on Wednesday also reported 199 deaths which raised the total fatalities to 50,254.

Of the deaths, 23 were recorded over the last few days and 176 designated as COVID-19 deaths after receiving appeals based on the new guidelines of the Centre and the directions of the Supreme Court.

As many as 72,808 samples were tested in the last 24 hours.

Among the 14 districts, Thiruvananthapuram recorded the highest with 3,498 fresh cases followed by Ernakulam (2,214), Kozhikode (1,164), Thrissur (989) and Kottyam (941).

Of the new cases, 125 were health workers, 597 from outside the State and 11,327 infected through contact with the source of it not being clear in 693, the release said.

There are currently 1,41,293 people under surveillance in various districts, of whom 1,38,264 are in home or institutional quarantine and 3,029 in hospitals, the release said.