Covid update: Kerala records 6,244 new cases, positivity rate comes down to 12%

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala records 6,244 more new cases who tested corona virus positive after testing of another 50,056 samples. 5,745 infected through local transmission, taking the caseload to 3,08,140 while the toll mounted to 1,066 with 20 more fatalities.

The deceased included a five month old baby and a 90- year-old man, health minister K K Shailaja said

The test positive rate (TPR) of the state came down to 12 percent on Wednesday while on Tuesday, the TPR was 18 per cent whereas ideally it should be below 10 per cent.

Health Minister KK Shailaja said in a statement that 7,792 more persons tested negative for the virus.

Kerala now has 93,837 active cases, whereas 2,15,149 patients have recovered.

Malappuram reported 1,013 cases, followed by Ernakulam 793, Kozhikode 661, Thrissur 581,Thiruvananthapuram 581 and Kollam 551, the minister said.

Cases in Thiruvananthapuram district have gone down - 581 on Wednesday, down from over 1,000 daily till recently.

Thirty six of those infected are health workers, 18 had come from abroad and 81 from other states.

As many as 2,78,989 people are presently under observation, of whom 2,52,645 are in home/institution quarantine and 26,344 in hospitals.

Seven new areas were included in the hot spots list while 14 were removed.

The minister said that the government has brought out new guidelines on discharge of infected patients in the backdrop of increasing COVID-19 cases.

Various categories have been drawn up for discharge of patients.

Those who are asymptomatic will have to undergo a Rapid Antigen Test 10 days after having tested positive.

If the patient tests negative, he/she can be discharged.

If the result is positive, the patient has to undergo antigen test on alternate days and if negative, can be discharged.

Those in A and B categories can take the antigen test 10 days after testing positive and showing no symptoms.

If the result is negative and after three days there are no symptoms, the patient can be discharged.

In category C (serious covid patients), 14 days after testing positive, patients can undertake the Rapid Antigen Test and if the result is negative, can be discharged.

If it is positive, tests can be done on alternate days and after the result is negative, the patient can be discharged.

(With inputs from IANS and PTI feeds)