Three more UK returnees test positive for COVID-19; 5142 cases in Kerala

Three U.K returnees wereamong 5,142 people who tested positive for COVID-19 on Fridayin Kerala, which also recorded 23 deaths, taking the totalinfection count to 8,01,075 and the toll to 3,257.

The state registered 5,325 recoveries, while active casesstood at 64,236, the government said.

Health Minister K K Shailaja said three more returneesfrom the U.K. tested positive for the virus.

Fifty people who have so far returned to the state fromthat country had tested positive for COVID-19, among whom sixwere found to have the new mutated strain of the virusdetected there, she said.

In the last 24 hours, 59,569 samples were tested and thetest positivityrate was 8.63 per cent.

''Until now, 83,44,963 samples have been tested,'' she saidin a release.

The total cases stood at 8,01,075 and recoveries at7,33,384.

Ernakulam continued to top the districts in number ofcases with 708, followed by Thrissur 500 and Kozhikode 469 Kasaragod reported the lowest with 65 cases.

Out of those infected today, 67 are health workers, 88had come from outside the state, while 4,563 contracted thedisease through their contacts.

The source of infection of 424 are yet to be traced.

A total of 1,98,270 people are under observation in thestate out of which 11,166 are in isolation wards of varioushospitals,'' the minister said.

Nine regions were removed from the list of hotspots andthree added, taking the total number to 440.