In inexorable climb, Kerala cases rise by 7,006

State tests over 58,000; A.P. tests nearly 76,000, adds 7,293 cases; Telangana incidence is 2,239;

It was a fresh high for COVID-19 cases in Kerala, as 7,006 more people were reported to be positive on Saturday.

Daily testing levels were up, with 58,799 more samples tested. Test positivity was 11.9%, indicating the extent of disease transmission.

Active cases stood at 52,678. Of these, 378 persons were in ICUs, with 93 patients on ventilator support. The number of new hospital admissions on Saturday was 3,446.

Kerala’s death toll rose to 656, with another 21 deaths which occurred between September 3 and 25 being added to the list. Six deaths were in Kasaragod, four were from Alapuzha, three each from Malappuram and Ernakulam, two each from Thiruvananthapuram and Thrissur and one from Pathanamthitta.

Locally acquired infections accounted for 6,761 new cases (96.5%). In 664 cases, the authorities could not pinpoint the source of infection. The locally-acquired infections included 93 healthcare workers, 22 of them from Thiruvananthapuram and 15 from Kannur.

Thiruvananthapuram was at another high on Saturday, when the daily case burden jumped to 1,050 from the 800-plus reported the previous day.

Cases were rising in other districts too. Malappuram had 826, Ernakulam 729, Kozhikode 684, Thrissur 594, Kollam 589, Palakkad 547, Kannur 435, Alapuzha 414, Kottayam 389, Pathanamthitta 329, Kasaragod 224, Idukki 107 and Wayanad 89 cases.

The top five districts, including Thiruvananthapuram, accounted for a chunk of active cases.

2,239 cases in Telangana

Telangana on Friday reported 2,239 fresh positive cases. Eleven more patients died while tests were conducted on 58,925 samples.

The total number of tests crossed 2.8 lakhs on Friday. From March 2 to September 25, a total of 2,80,0761 samples were checked for the presence of coronavirus. There was a huge variation in the number of tests performed in a day. While around 60,000 people were tested in a day from August 25 to September 11, the tests ranged between 50,000 to 60,000 in a day there after.

Of the 2,239 new cases detected on Friday, 316 were from Greater Hyderabad, 192 from Rangareddy, 164 from Medchal-Malkajgiri, 141 from Nalgonda, 106 from Karimnagar, 91 each from Warangal Urban and Bhadradri Kothagudem.

In the second week of August, senior health officials estimated that cases would come down in GHMC by the end of the month, and by end of September in other districts.

Andhra Pradesh reported 7,293 new infections and 57 deaths on Saturday.

There were 65,794 active cases, while 0.85% persons infected died so far. In the past day, 75,990 samples were tested and 9.60% were found to be positive.

East Godavari again reported over a thousand fresh cases, and Prakasam reported 10 new deaths.

New infections and deaths were: East Godavari (1,011 and 4), Chittoor (975 and 8), West Godavari (922 and 4), Prakasam (620 and 10), Kadapa (537 and 8), Anantapur (513 and 2), Nellore (466 and 3), Krishna (450 and 6), Visakhapatnam (450 and 5), Vizianagaram (444 and 1), Guntur (393 and 3), Srikakulam (306 and 2) and Kurnool (206 and 1).

The district infection tallies are as follows: East Godavari(93,184),West Godavari (63,504), Chittoor (59,243), Anantapur (55,729), Kurnool (55,456), Guntur (52,709), Nellore (50,493), Visakhapatnam (49,039),Prakasam (46,063), Kadapa (42,389), Srikakulam (38,090), Vizianagaram (33,803) and Krishna (26,154).

Kurnool has less than 4% active cases with 95.32% recovery rate. It is followed by Anantapur with 4.06% active cases. Nellore, Kadapa, Visakhapatnam and West Godavari have less than 10% active cases. Prakasam has 22.76% active cases and the lowest recovery rate of 76.25%.

85 die in Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu added 5,647 fresh cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on Saturday, taking its overall tally to 5,75,017. While 5,612 persons were discharged, the deaths of 85 persons were registered in the State.

Chennai, for the third day in a row, reported more than 1,000 COVID-19 cases. A total of 1,187 persons tested positive for the infection and 23 persons died in the city. Coimbatore followed with 656 new cases. Four districts had 200-plus cases – Salem (296), Chengalpattu (259), Tiruvallur (235) and Cuddalore (212).

The cases stayed high in a number of districts. Tiruppur reported 188 cases, while Thanjavur had 179 cases. There were 161 cases in Villupuram, while a total of 145 persons tested positive in The Nilgiris and 141 in Tiruvarur.

Till date, 5,19,448 persons have been discharged in the State. However, the toll kept rising with 85 more persons – 50 in government hospitals and 35 in private hospitals – succumbing to the infection. A total of 9,233 persons have died in the State so far.

Five of the deceased were aged in their 30s. One of them – a 38-year-old man from Ariyalur – did not have co-morbidities. He was admitted to a private hospital with complaints of cough and difficulty in breathing for four days on September 19. He died on September 23 due to acute respiratory distress syndrome and COVID-19 pneumonia.

A 34-year-old woman from Chennai with diabetes and hypothyroidism died at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital a day after admission on September 24 including due to COVID-19 pneumonia and respiratory failure.

Apart from Chennai, Salem and Thanjavur recorded six deaths each, while Coimbatore and Vellore had five deaths each. As of date, a total of 46,336 persons were under treatment in the State. This included 10,311 in Chennai and 4,859 in Coimbatore.

Another 94,037 samples were tested in the State, taking the total tally of samples tested to 70,04,558.

(With inputs from Vijayawada, Thiruvananthapuram and Bengaluru bureaus)

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