An addition of 1,989 new COVID-19 cases to the State’s tally on Thursday has taken Kerala’s cumulative case burden to 11,11,897 cases.

With 51,027 samples being tested in the past 24 hours, the test positivity rate on Thursday dipped to 3.9%.

With 1,865 recoveries being reported, the active case pool dipped to 24,380 cases. The cumulative recovery has risen to 10, 82,668.

Death toll

The addition of 12 new deaths which took place in the past few days to the official list of COVID fatalities in the State on Thursday took toll to 4,539 deaths.

Kollam reported three deaths, Thiruvananthapuram and Kannur two each, while one death each was reported from Alappuzha, Kottayam, Thrissur, Malappuram and Kasaragod.

The number of critically ill COVID patients currently being treated in ICUs in various hospitals in the State came down 445 on Thursday, according to official reports, with 134 of them requiring ventilator assistance.

Of the 1,989 new cases reported on Thursday, 1,761 cases are believed to be locally acquired infections, through the contact with other infected persons. This includes infections reported in 15 health-care workers. In 75 cases, the Health Department has reported a history of travel to other States. No history of travel or contact with infected persons are reported or known in the case of 153 infections.

Among districts, Kozhikode reported the maximum number of new cases with 301 cases, Kannur 205, Thiruvananthapuram 202, Malappuram 193, Ernakulam 188, Kottayam 152, Kollam 147, Alappuzha 110, Pathanamthitta 101, Thrissur 94, Kasaragod 92, Idukki, 89, Palakkad 101, and Wayanad 43 cases.

Foreign travellers

One more person from South Africa who reached Kerala in the past 24 hours, has tested positive for the virus.

With this, a total of 108 persons who reached the State from abroad since mid-December have tested positive. These include 102 persons from the U.K., five from South Africa and one from Brazil. Official reports said that 101 of them have since tested negative.

So far, 11 persons, including one contact of a U.K. returnee, have tested positive for the virus variant B.1.1.7 in the State.