THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The lockdown in Kerala, which was scheduled to end on June 9, has been extended by a week till June 16, as the Covid-19 death toll in the state crossed 10,000 on Monday.
In a statement, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that 9,313 people tested positive after 70,569 samples were sent for testing in the past 24 hours, taking the total active cases to 1,47,830.
The day also saw 221 Covid deaths, taking the death toll to 10,157.
The day, however, witnessed recovery of 21,921 patients, taking the tally of total cured to 24,83,992.
Across the state there were 6,32,868 people under observation which included 39,061 people in hospitals, while the state had 889 hotspots.
Vijayan had, last month, warned that the death rate might go up as the number of daily cases last month crossed 40,000.