Kerala registers 7,738 fresh Covid cases; death toll crosses 30,000

A day after it registered an uptick in daily fresh cases, Kerala on Thursday witnessed a decline, reporting 7,738 new COVID-19 infections and 708 related deaths which raised the caseload to 49,37,135 and the toll to 30,685.

The state had logged 9,445 fresh infections yesterday.

Of the 708 deaths, 56 were reported in the last few days, 542 were those which were not confirmed until June 18 last year due to lack of adequate documentation and 110 were designated as COVID deaths after receiving appeals based on the new guidelines of the Centre and Supreme Court directions, a state government release said.

With 5,460 more people recovering from the virus since Wednesday, the total recoveries touched 48,36,928 and the active cases reached 78,122, the release said.

As many as 76,043 samples were tested in the last 24 hours.

Among the 14 districts, Ernakulam recorded the highest with 1,298 cases, followed by Thiruvananthapuram (1,089) and Thrissur (836).

Of the new cases, 39 were health workers, 38 from outside the state and 7,375 infected through contact with the source of it not being clear in 286.

There are currently 2,68,223 people under surveillance in various districts, of whom 2,60,318 are in home or institutional quarantine and 7,905 in hospitals.