Thiruvananthapuram, May 31 (IANS): The number of Covid-19 cases continues to rise in Kerala with 61 more cases reported on Sunday - 20 of these among those who came from abroad and 37 among who came from within the country, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said.

With this, the total number of positive cases in the state has touched 670, while 590 people have been cured of the disease till now.

Authorities have dismissed the existence of community spread as the ratio of total cases to contacts continues to be around 10 per cent, while the national average is more than 20 per cent.

There has been a spike in cases since May 7, when the first flight carrying the Kerala diaspora from the Middle East arrived, and till Sunday, 19,662 people have arrived by air from abroad, while around 1.10 lakh have come by train and road from elsewhere in the country.

As on Sunday, a total of 1,33,413 people are in isolation at homes and corona care centres, while 1,241 are in hospitals.

A total of 3,099 samples was sent for examination and results are awaited.

With the spike in cases, the number of hotspots also is going up and on Sunday, 10 new were added, taking the total to 116 hot spots.

With Sundays now being observed as a total shutdown day, the Kerala Police, which is on the vigil, registered 1,254 cases, arrested 1,285 people and seized 677 vehicles for lockdown violations.

Now all eyes are on Vijayan, as the Covid-19 team sits down to decide on how to go ahead with Lockdown 5.0 that signals a gradual removal of the restrictions.