The State on Thursday reported 8,655 new COVID-19 cases, when 64,650 samples were tested in the last 24 hours.
The active case pool, which has been dipping steadily, reached the one-lakh mark to 99,424, with 22,707 persons reported to have recovered from the disease. About 4.5% of the active cases are currently hospitalised.
Hospitalisations and ICU occupancy are declining rapidly. The total number of patients admitted with moderate or severe COVID in hospitals declined to 4,382. New hospital admissions on the day was 679.
The current ICU occupancy of COVID patients in both public and private hospitals dipped from 846 to 819. The ventilator occupancy also dropped from 229 to 217.
The State declared 126 COVID deaths, of which 18 occurred within the last 24 hours and 108 were deaths which occurred in the last few days but which were declared only in the last 24 hours. It also added 193 pending COVID deaths to the official list of fatalities. These are deaths which have now been accepted as COVID deaths by the government as per the new guidelines of the Centre and following the appeals filed by families.
In all, the official cumulative case fatality rose to 63,338. The cumulative COVID-19 burden now stands at 64,49,026.
Among districts, Ernakulam reported the highest number of new cases with 1,696 cases, Thiruvananthapuram 1,087, Kollam 812, Thrissur 746, Kottayam 731, Kozhikode 610, Alappuzha 567, Pathanamthitta 447, Idukki 420, Malappuram 405, Kannur 357, Palakkad 343, Wayanad 332 and Kasaragod 102.
