THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala's COVID-19 tally is galloping towards the 5,000 mark, with the state recording the highest single day spike of 211 cases and recoveries touching 201 on Friday.
Of the positive cases, 138 had come from abroad and39 from other states and 27 were infected through contact, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told reporters.
Six Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel and a policeman on duty at the Secretariat here are among those infected today.
Those who tested positive at Alappuzha on Friday include 11 members of a family and a pregnant woman.
This is the first time that the per day cases has touched the 200 mark and the numbers of those infected through contact has also gone up substantially.
The total COVID cases in the state has touched 4,964 and those under treatment 2,098 while 2,839 have recovered so far.
As per the district-wise infection tally, Malappuram recorded 35 cases, Kollam 23, Alappuzha and Thrissur 21 each, Kannur 18, Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram 17 each, Palakkad, Kottayam and Kozhikode 14 each, Kasaragod and Pathanamthitta seven each and Wayanad one.
At least 201 people, who were infected, have recovered today.
The highest recovery was reported from Palakkad 68 and Pathanamthitta 29.
Over 1.77 lakh people are under observation.
According to the chief minister, 1,74,117 are in home/institutional quarantine and 2,894 in hospitals, including 378 admitted today.
The government has ramped up testing with 7,306 samples tested in the lst 24 hours.
So far 2.53 lakh samples have been sent for testing.
The chief minister also said there were reports of some unfortunate incidents of homes of those in quarantine being attacked.
He also referred to an incident when a young woman from Kottayam, who had come from Bengaluru along with her two children aged four and seven, after completing her mandatory 14 days quarantine, was not allowed inside her parental and husband's home fearing the virus and she was forced to spend at least eight hours on the road.
Malappuram has the highest number of COVID-19 cases at 248, Kannur 226 and Kollam 204.