Kerala Covid cases cross 31,000 mark in post-Onam surge; 3rd wave threat looms

• With a spike in Covid-19 cases, Kerala recorded the highest single-day count in 3 months. On Wednesday, the state registered 31,445 fresh cases of coronavirus & 215 deaths. This pushed the total infection count to 38,83,429 & the fatalities to 19,972 so far. The state, however, also witnessed 20,271 recoveries in a span of 24 hours. The Test Positivity Rate (TPR) jumped to 19.03% from 18.04% on Tuesday. Of the new cases, 123 were health workers & 138 from outside the state. Among the districts, Ernakulam recorded the highest number with 4,048 cases. The last time Kerala crossed the 30,000 mark was on May 20, it had logged 30,491 cases. After Onam festivities, medical experts had predicted that TPR would go beyond 20%. Since July 27, Kerala has been logging over or close to 20,000 cases almost every day. There are currently 4,70,860 people under surveillance in various districts of the state. Of these people, 4,44,278 are in home or institutional quarantine & 26,582 in hospitals.