On Wednesday, Kerala recorded 31,445 new COVID-19 cases, a record high in around three months. The last time the state recorded case numbers beyond the 30,000 mark was on May 22.

The rise following Onam and low testing during the week of festivities took India’s daily case count to 46,206. The data from with Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand was yet to be received. This is the first time since July 7 that India’s total case numbers have surged past the 45,000 mark. The last time any state in the country registered over 30,000 cases was when Tamil Nadu recorded 30,016 on May 29.

Onam appears to have disrupted Kerala’s COVID management protocol. The seven-day average of tests was on a constant decline in the state since August 5. The average was 1.68 lakh on August 5, which dropped to 1.47 lakh on August 10 and 1.09 lakh by August 24.

Irrespective of the reduced testing, lower restrictions during Onam have led to a more or less steady case count and a surge in the case positivity rate in Kerala. The seven-day average test positivity rate was below 11% for most of the month of July, but has been showing a rise since July 21. On Wednesday, the average test positivity rate in the state stood at 17.3%, which suggests that cases might increase as the testing protocol returns to its normal pace.

While Kerala accounted for more than 68% of the cases in the country, Maharashtra also registered a slight surge as cases surpassed the 5,000 mark after a span of five days. Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka followed Kerala and Maharashtra as the only other states to record more than 1000 cases on Wednesday. The daily death toll crossed the 600 mark for the first time since August 6.

Source: ET Health world