Thiruvananthapuram, Jul 14 (IANS): A record 608 new coronavirus cases were detected in Kerala on Tuesday, taking the state's total such cases to 8,930 and active cases to 4,454, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said.

"Things are serious... in Thiruvananthapuram district itself there were 201 cases on Tuesday , of which 158 are local infectees. The total number of local infectees for the day in the state is 396. The state also registered one COVID death -- a 47-year-old man who had returned from Saudi Arabia," said Vijayan.

"According to WHO, the fourth stage is community spread. As things stand, we are now in the third stage of cluster spread, especially in Thiruvananthapuram and Malappuram. Hence from now on, all of us have to ensure that we should do everything to check the community spread. It's now going to be six months since we have been fighting COVID and we have to continue our caution," he added.

As of date, the southern state has 227 corona hotspots.

Vijayan said that drones have been put into service to help the police. Besides, 14 IAS officers have been given charge to oversee Covid operations in all the districts in the state.