Thiruvananthapuram:
Three U.K returnees were among 5,142 people who tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday in Kerala, which also recorded 23 deaths, taking the total infection count to 8,01,075 and the toll to 3,257.
The state registered 5,325 recoveries, while active cases stood at 64,236, the government said.
Health Minister K K Shailaja said three more returnees from the U.K. tested positive for the virus.
Fifty people who have so far returned to the state from that country had tested positive for COVID-19, among whom six were found to have the new mutated strain of the virus detected there, she said.
In the last 24 hours, 59,569 samples were tested and the test positivity rate was 8.63 per cent.
”Until now, 83,44,963 samples have been tested,” she said in a release.
The total cases stood at 8,01,075 and recoveries at7,33,384.
Ernakulam continued to top the districts in number of cases with 708, followed by Thrissur 500 and Kozhikode 469 Kasaragod reported the lowest with 65 cases.
Out of those infected today, 67 are health workers, 88 had come from outside the state, while 4,563 contracted the disease through their contacts.
The source of infection of 424 are yet to be traced.
A total of 1,98,270 people are under observation in the state out of which 11,166 are in isolation wards of various hospitals,” the minister said.
Nine regions were removed from the list of hotspots and three added, taking the total number to 440.
