Thiruvananthapuram, Jun 21 (IANS): For the first time in two months, Kerala on Monday saw its active Covid cases drop below the one lakh mark, while the test positivity rate (TPR) fell below 10 per cent, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said.

Vijayan, in a statement, said that 7,499 people turned Covid positive after 77,853 samples were sent for testing in the past 24 hours and the TPR was 9.63 per cent.

With 13,596 people turning negative, the total cured in the state rose to 27,04,554, while the number of active cases was 99,693.

The coming days will reveal if this rate is going to be consistent as the number of tests conducted comes down on Sunday.

The day also saw 94 Covid deaths being registered, taking the death toll to 12,154.

Across the state, there were 4,30,728 people under observation at various places which included 27,266 at hospitals.

As far the TPR was concerned, the statement said that in 178 local bodies, it stood below 8 per cent, while 633 local bodies had a TPR in the range of 8 to 20 per cent, 208 local bodies had it between 20 to 30 per cent, while in 16 local bodies, it was above 30 per cent.