Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala): Kerala continued to witness a big surge in daily COVID-19 infections with 449 cases being reported on Monday, pushing the count to 8322, while the death toll has reached 33 with two more fatalities.
As many as 77 jawans of the Indo Tibetan Border Force and five health workers are among the infected, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said.
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A 74-year-old man from Kollam and a 64-year-old woman from Kannur died of the disease, he said.
At least 144 people have been infected through contact while the source of the 18 of those who tested positive is not yet known.
At least 162 people have recovered.
The fresh cases include 140 people from abroad and 64 from other states.
Alappuzha recorded the highest number of cases on Monday with 119 infections, followed by Thiruvananthapuram 63, Malappuram and Pathanamthitta 47 and Kannur 44.
Other districts, Kollam 33, Palakkad 19, Kozhikode 16, Ernakulam 15, Wayanad 14, Kottayam 10, Thrissur and Kasaragod nine and Idukki four.
In the last 24 hours, 12,230 samples were tested.
At least 1,80,594 people are under observation, 4376 in hospitals, including 713 admitted today, the highest so far on a single day.
So far, 2,44,388 samples have been sent for testing and results of 5407 samples are awaited.
The total hotspots as of now are 233.
(PTI report)
