Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 15 Continuing the surge, Kerala on Saturday recorded over 17,000 new Covid-19 cases with at least 17,755 people testing positive for the coronavirus, officials said.
A statement issued by Health Minister Veena George said 65,937 samples were tested in the last 24 hours. The test positivity rate (TPR) has risen to 26.92 per cent.
On Friday, the TPR was 23 per cent, while 16,338 new cases were registered.
Thiruvananthapuram district which has been recording 3,000 or more new cases since the past few days, reported 4,694 Covid positive cases on Saturday.
Consequent to the spike in the past few days, the number of active cases in the state is nearing one lakh.
"In three weeks, the cases are going to peak. Authorities are getting ready to plan and identify centres to be kept ready, if a need arises," said George.
The Minister said that to date, 51 per cent (7.67 lakh) of the population aged between 15 to 18 have been given their first dose, and "this has been achieved in just 12 days".
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