NEW DELHI: Kerala overtook Karnataka in total Covid cases on Wednesday to emerge as the second worst-affected state in India after Maharashtra in terms of virus caseload. It also has the highest number of active cases in the country.
With 6,356 fresh cases — which were nearly half of the infections recorded in the entire country on Wednesday — Kerala’s caseload reached 9,44,709, surging past Karnataka’s total cases which stood at 9,40,596.

Though Maharashtra has the maximum caseload with 2,033,266 infections, Kerala tops the country in active cases which stand at 69,365. Maharashtra is second with 38,762 active cases followed by Karnataka (5,934 active cases) and Bengal (5,196). Total active cases in India continued to slide and fell by nearly 5,000 on Wednesday to 1,56,995.
Kerala accounts for nearly 45% of the country’s total active cases.

While the number of cases has been steadily falling across the country, the daily new cases have been increasing in the southern Indian state.
The state also has a higher than average positive rate of 10.66%. Over 10 per cent of the people being tested in the state were turning out to be positive. The average positivity rate of the country as reported on Wednesday was 1.3%. The test positivity rate helps virologists understand the level of virus transmission within a community. It also aids in determining if there are enough tests being conducted.

As many as 2,18,318 people are under observation in various places in the state. There were 30 new hotspots, while 11 places were removed as hotspots, to leave a total of 376 hotspots in the state.
However, the state has performed relatively better in controlling the number of deaths. It has the lowest fatality rate among the top 15 worst-hit states in the country. Another 20 deaths were reported on Wednesday, taking the state’s death toll to 3,796.