THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The number of COVID-19 patients under treatment crossed the 30,000-mark with the addition of over 3,100 patients on Sunday. The increased spread of infection in the state and the high test positivity rate (TPR) of nine point to the expert prediction that COVID-19 cases are set to peak in the latter half of September.
Of the 34,786 people tested in 24 hours, 3,139 tested positive for COVID-19. The rate of test positivity on Saturday was just 6.5. The high TPR in the last five days also showed that the spread has increased and hence the need to ramp up testing.
The number of active cases was 23,220 on September 8 and the steady rise saw it reaching 30,075 in five days. Among the newly-infected, 2,921 people contracted the virus through local transmission, 36 came from abroad and 126 came from other states. As many as 14 Covid-19 deaths were confirmed on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the sources of infection of 251 persons are unknown. A total of 56 health workers were confirmed with the infection on Sunday and the majority of them were from Thiruvananthapuram and Kannur. On a positive note, 1,855 people recovered from the infection on the day, taking the total number of recovered persons to 77,703.
