Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 23 (IANS): Kerala continues to lead the rest of the country in daily new Covid cases, as 19,682 people turned positive on Thursday after 1,21,945 samples were tested in the past 24 hours, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said in a statement.

The daily test positivity rate was 16.14 per cent, while the state continues to record over 60 per cent of the new cases in the country, which has been the pattern for quite a few weeks.

Vijayan's statement also said 20,510 people turned negative, taking the total active cases in the state to 1,60,046, of which 13 per cent of the patients are in hospitals.

The day saw 152 Covid deaths taking the total death tally to 24,191.

As on date, 91 per cent of the population aged above 18 have got their first dose of vaccine, of which 38.5 per cent have got both the jabs.

On Thursday, a high-level meeting of health and education officials, chaired by the two state ministers, started to discuss modalities to be adopted when schools open in November.

Meanwhile the opposition Congress-led UDF, which met here, said that the compensation of Rs 50,000, which the Centre is planning to give to the families whose member died of Covid is too less, and it should be Rs 10 lakh.