Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 16 (IANS): Kerala reported 5,960 new Covid cases with a test positivity rate of 9.18 per cent while 5,011 people recovered from the disease on Saturday.

64,908 samples were tested in the past 24 hours. A press communique from the office of the state Health Minister K.K. Shailaja said.

68,414 people are under treatment at various hospitals in the state, the press release said.

Ernakulam with 1,046 Covid cases has reported the highest number of cases while Kasargod with 92 cases reported the lowest. 27 deaths were reported on Saturday taking the total death toll to 3,442 cases, the release said.

Of the total number of Covid patients reported on Saturday, 87 people have come from outside the state. 5,403 people tested positive through contact while the source of contact of 417 people is unknown.

53 health workers also tested positive on Saturday while 2,05,561 people are under observation in the state on Saturday. Of this 1,94,467 people are under home/institutional quarantine and 11,094 people are under observation at various hospitals. There are a total of 412 hotspots in the state.