Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 5 (IANS): On expected lines, the number of Covid positive cases in Kerala continues to surge and on Saturday it saw the highest number of 2,655 people turning positive.

Speaking to the media, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on account of Onam relaxation in rules, this was expected "but if compared to the basic indicators of spread with other states, we have done well to keep such indicators below the national average."

"The tests per million reveals Kerala is doing well, when the national average is 2,731, Kerala's figure is 2,168 while in other neighbouring states like Andhra Pradesh it stands at 8,479, while in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu it's above 5,000," said Vijayan.

He said of the new cases, 2,433 were local infectees and a cause for worry is while the spread in the capital district costal hamlets has come down, it's not so in the city.

At present there are 21,800 active Covid cases in the state .

"Kerala leads in the number of tests conducted and we strictly follow the WHO guidelines. We have a figure where one positive case is there when 22 people are tested, while in Tamil Nadu it's 11 and this is worked out by tests per million/case per million. In the past 24 hours, 40,168 samples was sent for testing," said Vijayan.

11 deaths were reported, taking the death toll to 337.