Kerala recorded 1,553 new COVID-19 and 1,950 recoveries on September 3, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said in his evening briefing.
Among them, 1,391 people contracted the disease through contact. The source of infection of 156 is yet to be traced.
28 of these diagnosed today have arrived from overseas and 90 from other states.
Kerala also reported 10 deaths, taking the death toll to 315 and 1950 recoveries.
The state has reported 79625 cases so far , out of which 57,728 persons recovered.
The CM said that the test positivity rate had gone up in the past two days. The test positivity rate in Kerala is above 8.
He also said that the some studies claimed the number of COVID-19 cases in Kerala would go up further in October.
In the last month, Kerala recorded more than 50 percent of the total cases, he said. It is uncertain if cases have surged in the days of Onam when interactions with people had increased.
The CM said that the next 14 days will be crucial and state machinery has been reinforced to mitigate the threats posed by a larger community spread.
317 persons from Thiruvananthapuram district, 164 from Ernakulam district, 160 from Kottayam district, 133 from Kasargod district, 131 from Kozhikode district, 118 from Pathanamthitta district, 93 from Thrissur district, 91 from Malappuram district, 87 in Alappuzha district, 74 from Kannur district, 65 in Kollam district, 58 from Palakkad district, 44 in Idukki district and 18 from Wayanad district are those who tested positive today for Coronavirus.
The locally transmitted cases were detected in 299 persons from Thiruvananthapuram district, 135 from Ernakulam district, 158 from Kottayam district, 118 from Kasaragod district, 122 from Kozhikode district, 97 from Pathanamthitta district, 90 from Thrissur district, 85 from Malappuram district, 83 from Alappuzha district, 64 from Kannur district, 55 from Kollam district, 50 from Palakkad district, 20 from Idukki district and 15 from Wayanad district.
40 healthcare workers were also infected by the disease – 15 in Thiruvananthapuram district, 10 in Ernakulam district, four in Kozhikode district, three in Kannur district, two each in Kollam and Kasaragod districts, and one each in Pathanamthitta, Kottayam, Thrissur and Palakkad districts. Four INHS personnel in Ernakulam district are among those infected.
Currently, there are a total of 1,92,168 people under quarantine in various districts of the state, 1,74,135 under home or institutional quarantine and 18,033 in hospitals. 1,703 persons were admitted to the hospital today.
30,342 samples were analysed in the last 24 hours. Till now, a total of 17,55,568 samples have been sent for testing, including 1,80,540 samples from priority groups as part of Sentinel Surveillance.
There are eight new hotspots in the State while 14 places were exempted today bringing down the total number of hotspots to 569.
