7 Army jawans among 225 new COVID-19 cases in Kerala

Kerala on Sunday reported second highest single day rise of 225 COVID-19 cases, including seven jawans of an Army unit in the state, taking the total to 5,429, the government said.

A day after recording the highest single day surge of 240 cases, the state added 225 cases of whom 117 were overseas returnees, 57 from other states while 38 contracted the disease through contacts.

"Other than this, sevenDefence Security Corps (DSC) jawans in Kannur, two CISF jawans, two BSF jawans and two ship crew have also contracted the disease," state Health Minister K K Shailaja said in a release here.

Test results of 126 people who were undergoing treatment turned negative on Sunday, taking the cumulative recoveries to 3,174, the release said, adding the active cases stood at 2,228.

Of the fresh cases, Palakkad accounted for the highest at 29 followed by Kasaragod (28), Thiruvananthapuram (27), Malappuram (26) and Kannur (25).

Thiruvananthapuram district has the most number of cases through contact at 22, forcing the administration to strengthen the implementation of the health protocol.

"There are 1,80,939 people under observation in the state out of which 2,944 are in the isolation wards of various hospitals across the state," the release said.

A total of 7,461 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative tally to 2,68,218 samples.

The health department has also declared 24 new hotspots in the state and the total rose to 153.

As per the latest medical bulletin, Malappuram has 278 cases, the highest in the state, followed by Kannur with 274 infections. Palakkad (196), Ernakulam (194) and Alappuzha (191) are the other districts with high case load.

Image Credits: PTI