Thiruvananthapuram, Jun 5 (IANS): Even after the tightening of lockdown norms in Kerala and the test positivity rate staying just below 15 per cent on Saturday, the state reported 200 Covid related fatalities in the past 24 hours, taking its overall death toll to 9,719, according to a statement issued by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

On Saturday, Kerala reported 17,328 new Covid cases out of the 1,16,354 samples tested in the past 24 hours, taking its tally of active cases to 1,67,638, the statement said.

On a positive note, as many as 24,003 persons recovered from the disease in the past 24 hours, pushing the state's total number of recoveries till date to 24,40,642.

The capital district of Thiruvananthapuram recorded the maximum number of cases on Saturday at 2,468, followed by Malappurram (1,980).

At present, 6,69,815 persons are under observation across the state, including 34,925 persons in different hospitals.

The state presently has 870 Covid hotspots.

Meanwhile, with the test positivity rate continuing to hover around the 15 per cent range, the state government has all of a sudden decided to tighten the lockdown norms and cancelled the relaxations given to jewellery and textile shops, asking them not to open till next Wednesday when a fresh review would be done to decide the next course of action.