Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 24 (IANS): After a lull in daily testing, Kerala again saw daily Covid case numbers rise high, with 24,296 people testing Covid positive after 1,34,706 samples were tested.

The state leads the country in new daily cases, the number of active cases, and the number of daily Covid deaths.

The daily test positivity rate has reached 18.04 per cent, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said in a statement.

For the past three days, the daily positive cases had fallen after the state was celebrating Onam and fewer tests were being conducted.

The day's figures were released shortly after a high level meeting of Vijayan and others to assess the situation decided that existing Covid protocols would not be tinkered with now, and that the already announced Sunday total lockdown in the state will continue.

Vijayan's statement also said that 19,349 people turned negative, taking the total active cases to 1,59,335.

The day also saw a high of 173 Covid deaths, taking the total death toll to 19,757.