THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state has confirmed 65 new coronavirus positive cases on Sunday, health minister KK Shailaja said. Of the new cases, 8 are in Kozhikode, 7 each in Ernakulam and Thrissur, six each in Palakkad and Kasaragod, four each in Thiruvananthapuram and Kannur, three each in Kottayam and Malappuram, two each in Pathanamthitta and Idukki, and one each in Kollam and Wayanad.

Among the new cases, 23 persons had returned from abroad (UAE-13, Saudi Arabia-5, Nigeria-3, Kuwait-2), 25 persons had returned from other states (Maharashtra-13, Tamil Nadu-9, Delhi-1, Karnataka-1, Haryana-1). Three persons developed the disease through contact-two in Thrissur and one in Malappuram. Three health workers also contracted the disease-one in Thiruvananthapuram and two in Thrissur.

Meanwhile, 56 coronavirus patients tested negative for the disease on Wednesday. 27 of these patients are in Palakkad, 7 in Thrissur, five in Malappuram, three each in Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha(one Thiruvananthapuram native) and Ernakulam (one Thrissur native and Kozhikode native) two each in Kottayam, Idukki, and Kannur, one each in Wayanad and Kasaragod.

As of today, there are 1340 patients under treatment for the viral disease at various hospitals in Kerala. 1101 persons recovered from the disease.

A total of 2,46,767 persons came to Kerala through various channels (airports-71,595, sea port-1621, check posts-1,39,749 railway-27,312). There are 2,42,767 persons under observation in the state with 2,40,744 at home/institutional quarantine and 2023 at hospitals. 224 persons were admitted to hospitals on Sunday.

In the past 24 hours, 4848 samples were tested. As of Sunday, 1,12,962 samples of individuals(including private lab samples) were sent for testing. Results of 2851 samples are pending. As part of sentinel surveillance, 30,785 samples of persons in priority group were sent for testing. Of this, 28,935 samples returned with negative results. A total of 1,49,164 samples were sent for testing including routine sample, augmented sample, sentinel sample, pooled sentinel, CB-NAAT, and Truenat.

Six new hotspots were declared on Sunday-Kumli in Idukki, Kanhangad, Karadka, and Pallikkara in Kasaragod, Muzhakkunnu and Peravoor in Kannur. Vorkady in Kasaragod has been removed from the list of hotspots. Currently, there are 122 hotspots in the state.