Our Correspondent
For the first time after the spread of COVID-19, the number of people cured of the infection exceeded the number of people newly infected, according to the statistics released by the Government of Kerala.
COVID-19 was confirmed in 5,445 people in Kerala on October 8 while 7,003 patients under treatment have recovered from the disease, according to Minister for Health K.K. Shailaja. This is the highest count of recoveries on any single day so far.
Meanwhile, 24 deaths were confirmed as due to COVID taking the death toll in the State to 930. The deceased are Peerumuhammed (60), Vijayakumaran Nair (72), Raju (45), Sreekumari (58), Mohanan (61), Rajesh (36), Vijayan (58), Rajendran (68) and Savitri (60) from Thiruvananthapuram district; Sivasankaran (74), Sasi (84) and Soman (65) from Kollam district; Nalinakshan (78), Susheela (46), Ashokan (58), Abdul Ghafoor (49), Balakrishnan (82), Sheeja (49), Moosa (65), Chandramohan (69), Gopalan (69) and Sainaba (68) from Kozhikode district, and Rukiabi (86) and Krishnan (84) from Kasaragod district.
The district-wise count of the new positive cases are Malappuram 1,024, Kozhikode 688, Kollam 497, Thiruvananthapuram 467, Ernakulam 391, Thrissur 385, Kannur 377, Alappuzha 317, Pathanamthitta 295, Palakkad 285, Kasaragod 236, Kottayam 231, Wayanad 131 and Idukki 121. Of those diagnosed, 55 were returnees from overseas and 195 from other States.
A total of 4,616 people were infected through contact and the contact source for 502 was unknown. The numbers of the locally transmitted cases from the districts are Malappuram 916, Kozhikode 651, Kollam 477, Thiruvananthapuram 349, Ernakulam 291, Thrissur 377, Kannur 261, Alappuzha 306, Pathanamthitta 181, Palakkad 164, Kasargod 218, Kottayam 229, Wayanad 126 and Idukki 70.
Seventy-three healthcare workers were among those infected through contact. Their district-wise count was Thiruvananthapuram 15, Malappuram & Kannur 11 each, Pathanamthitta & Ernakulam 8 each, Kollam 7, Kozhikode 6, Thrissur 3, and Palakkad & Kasaragod 2 each. Four INHS personnel in Ernakulam district were also infected.
The district-wise figures of the patients who tested negative on the day were Thiruvananthapuram 1,520, Kollam 259, Pathanamthitta 139, Alappuzha 457, Kottayam 375, Idukki 69, Ernakulam 707, Thrissur 460, Palakkad 407, Malappuram 876, Kozhikode 1,113, Wayanad 129, Kannur 387 and Kasargod 105.
At present, there are 90,579 patients undergoing treatment for Coronavirus infection in the State while till now, 1,67,256 people have been cured of COVID.
There are 2,71,439 people totally under observation in various districts of the State, 2,42,056 under home or institutional quarantine and 29,383 in isolation at hospitals. 4,066 persons were admitted to hospitals on the day.
A total of 63,146 samples were tested during the last 24 hours. A total of 34,029.03 samples have so far been sent for testing, including 2,11,281 samples from high public exposure groups as part of Sentinel Surveillance.
There were 721 hotspots now in Kerala with nine declared as hotspots on the day while 10 were excluded from the list.
