Kerala logs 4,034 fresh COVID-19 cases, 14 deaths push toll to 4,119

Kerala reported 4,034 new COVID-19 cases and 14 related deaths on Tuesday taking the tally of affected in the state to 10,41,252 and the toll to 4,119.

Health Minister K K Shailaja said 69,604 samples were tested in the state in the last 24 hours and the test positivity rate was 5.80 per cent.

The state has tested1,11,37,843 samples so far. Shailaja said a 72-year old person was found infected with the new strain of the virus from the UK.

"The 72-year-old is the contact of a Kozhikode native, a UK returnee, who was earlier tested positive with the new strain. With these a total of 11 persons have been found positive with the new strain till now," Minister said.

She said out of those affected on Tuesday, 81 reached the state from outside while 3,674 contracted the disease through their contacts.

"The sources of infection of 258 are yet to be traced. As many as 21 health workers are also among the infected," the Minister said in a release.

Among the districts, Ernakulam reported the highest number of cases--484, followed by Pathanamthitta (430) and Kollam (408). Meanwhile, 4,823 people recovered from the infection on Tuesday taking the total number of cured in the state to 9,81,835.

Currently, there are 54,665 people under treatment in the state. There are 2,35,225 under observation in the state, out of which 8,083 are in isolation wards of various hospitals. Four new regions were added and four regions were removed from the list of hotspots taking its total number to 372.