21,427 fresh COVID-19 cases, 179 more deaths in Kerala

PTI, Aug 18, 2021, 6:46 PM IST

Thiruvananthapuram; Kerala on Wednesday logged 21,427 new COVID-19 cases pushing the infection count to 37,25,005, as the number of people succumbing to the disease rose to 19,049 with 179 additional deaths.

As many as 18,731 people have been cured of the infection since Tuesday, taking the total recoveries to 35,48,196 and the number of active cases to 1,77,683, a state government release said.

In the last 24 hours, 1,38,225 samples were tested and the TPR was found to be 15.5 per cent. So far, 2,98,23,377 samples have been tested, it said.

Among districts, Malappuram led the fray with 3089 cases followed by Kozhikode (2821), Ernakulam (2636), Thrissur (2307), Palakkad (1924), Kannur (1326), Kollam (1311), Thiruvananthapuram (1163), Kottayam (1133) and Alappuzha (1005).

Of the new cases, 86 are health workers, 108 had come from outside the state and 20,262 were infected through contact with the source of contact being not clear in 971 cases, the release said.

There are currently 4,98,630 people under surveillance in various districts of the state. Of these, 4,70,771 are in home or institutional quarantine and 27,859 in hospitals.