New Delhi, Aug 14 (IANS): Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya is set to visit Kerala and Assam to review the Covid-19 situation in the two states.

In Kerala, Mandaviya on August 16 is expected to meet Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and will hold a meeting with the state's Health Minister and other officials engaged in managing the pandemic.

He will be accompanied by the Director of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and other senior officials of the Health Ministry.

Covid continues to rage in Kerala and on Friday the state reported over 20,000 new cases.

A statement issued by the Chief Minister said 20,452 new new cases was registered after 1,42,501 samples were sent for testing in the past 24 hours, and the daily Covid Test Positivity Rate (TPR) was 14.35 per cent, the third successive when it was above 14 per cent.

There were also 16,856 recoveries, while the number total active cases stood at 1,80,000.

As Covid cases are on surge in the northeastern region, Mandaviya will do a ground review of the situations with Health Ministers during his Assam visit on August 17.

Assam's Covid-19 tally mounted to 5,78,733 on Friday as 763 more people tested positive for the virus, while 20 fresh fatalities pushed the death toll to 5,471, the National Health Mission (NHM) said in a bulletin.