Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 10 (IANS): Hovering over the 13 per cent mark for a while, the daily Covid test positivity rate in Kerala on Tuesday jumped to 15.91 per cent, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said.

In a statement issued here, he said that 21,119 people turned Covid positive after 1,32,769 samples were tested in the past 24 hours.

This is the first time in a few weeks that the daily TPR has crossed 15 per cent, while Kerala continues to have more than 50 per cent of the daily new cases in the country.

Vijayan also said that there were 1,71,985 active cases in the state after 18,493 people turned negative.

The day also saw 152 Covid deaths, taking the death toll to 18,004.

Malappuram district continues to lead in the number of daily cases, with 3,603, followed by Ernakulam with 2,539 cases.

With Kerala now heading for Onam festival season, it remains to be seen on what would be its impact as most of the restrictions have been relaxed till August 22, including lifting of triple lockdown on Sundays.

Hitherto since April, all Sundays saw triple lockdown across the state but on account of Independence Day and Third Onam falling on Sundays, there will be no lockdown.