Southern states continue reporting high number of COVID cases

Incidentally, Tamil Nadu crossed the grim milestone of two lakh cases, although cured persons outnumbered the active cases.

Kerala witnessed its highest single day spike so far, recording 1,103 fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the infection count to 18,098. Over 1.5 lakh persons are under observation. Karnataka's single day tally on Saturday stood at 5,072, with nearly half of the cases coming from capital Bengaluru urban alone.

Second after Maharashtra in the total number of cases, Tamil Nadu on Saturday breached the grim milestone of two lakh Coronavirus cases, coupled with its biggest daily spike of 6,988 fresh infections that pushed the tally to 2,06,737. The state's first COVID-19 case was reported in March, a 45-year-old man from Kancheepuram who had returned from Oman.

Tamil Nadu crossed the one lakh mark on July 3 and sailed past 1.50 lakh positive cases on July 15. Though the state had initially reported low numbers and even seemed to be heading towards flattening the curve, two clusters led to fast spread of the pandemic, putting Tamil Nadu among the worst affected states.

The death toll climbed to 3,409 with 89 fatalities. Karnataka saw 5,072 cases and 72 related fatalities, pushing the total beyond 90,000 while the casualties stood at 1,796, the health department said.

Out of the 5,072 fresh cases, 2,036 cases were from Bengaluru urban alone. The previous single-day spike recorded was on July 23 with 5,030 cases.

Bengaluru urban district tops the list of positive cases with a total of 43,503 followed by Dakshina Kannada at 4,607 and Kalaburagi with 3,712 infections. In its highest single day spike till now, Kerala on Saturday reported 1,103 fresh infections, even as the cumulative tally stood at 18,098.

As many as 9,420 persons are under treatment. Thiruvananthapuram, where the government had declared two regions with community transmission, has 2,666 COVID-19 patients, the highest in the state.

In Andhra Pradesh too, the upward spiral of virus cases continued as another 7,813 were added in a day to take the overall tally to 88,671 on Saturday. The total number of COVID-19 patients discharged so far touched 43,255 and the gross toll was 985.

The state now has 44,431 active cases, according to the bulletin.