Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala saw a slight dip in the coronavirus test positivity rate as 5,771 more coronavirus infections were detected in the state on Thursday.
5,549 more patients recovered and were discharged from hospitals, Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said.
Situation is grave as up to 44% of Covid-19 cases in India have of late been reported from the state, which was once hailed as the role model for management of the disease.
Vijayan told the media here that 72,392 patients are under treatment in the state, as of Thursday. With testing of 58,472 more samples, the positivity rate of Kerala is 9.87 per cent.
The state's commercial capital Ernakulam recorded maximum 784 cases while Kasargod had the least 84 cases.
Nineteen more fatalities on Thursday took the COVID deaths in Kerala to 3,682, Vijayan said.
In all, 88 of the positive cases have come from outside the state while 5,528 patients contracted the disease through contacts. The source of contact of 410 persons was not clear.
In all, 45 more health workers tested positive -- Kannur 11, Ernakulam, Palakkad and Wayanad 5 each, Pathanamthitta and Thrissur 4 each, Thiruvananthapuram 3, Kottayam, Kasargod and Kozhikode 2 each, Kollam and Idukki one each.
A total of 2,14,935 people are under observation in various parts of the southern state, including 2,03,126 in home or institutional quarantine, the Chief Minister said.
Six new hotspots took the total to 404 in the state.
On Wednesday, the Indian Medical Association issued a note of caution of an impending hike in the pandemic.
A joint statement signed by Dr Rajiv Jayadevan, former president of IMA, Dr T V Ravi and Dr Atul Manual, office bearers of the Kerala chapter, says that Kerala has the highest per centage of Covid-19 patients in the country. "It is with concern we are watching the hike in the TPR on a daily basis while the Intensive Care Units in hospitals across the State are getting filled up to capacity. The situation calls for emergency measures as the State is on the verge of a third wave of attack by the pandemic," said the doctors.