THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala recorded 17,821 new Covid cases on Monday, informed Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan while addressing the media here. With 196 fatalities, Kerala has recorded the highest single-day COVID deaths. With this, the death toll mounted to 7554.

With today"s caseload of 17,821, the number of active cases touched 2,59,179 in the state.

The test positivity rate was recorded at 20.41 percent.

36,039 recoveries were also reported in the state. 20,98,674 people recovered from the disease so far.

A total of 87,331 samples were tested in the last 24 hours. In total, 1,88,81,587 samples including routine sample, sentinel sample, CBNAAT, Truenat, POCT, PCR, RTLAMP, antigen were sent for the tests.

One returned from the UK, tested positive for Covid -19 in the last 24 hours. So far, 126 people including 116 UK returnees, 9 from South Africa, and 1 from Brazil tested positive for the virus infection. 124 of them have recovered from the disease. 11 patients have been infected with the mutant virus strain.

78 health workers also tested positive for Covid -19.

9,28,541 people are currently under observation in the state. Out of this 8,89,627 people are under home/institutional quarantine and 6,62,42 people are in hospitals. 3248 people were taken to hospitals on Monday.

Two new places were added to the list of hotspots on Monday and no place was removed from the list. Currently, there are 879 hotspots in the state.