Thiruvananthapuram, After recording the highest single-day spike of over 3,000 Covid cases on Sunday, Kerala on Monday reported a dip in the daily tally with 1,648 new cases.

The reason for this striking contrast can be attributed to the fact that only 20,215 samples were tested on Monday as against Sunday's 40,000 plus.

State Health Minister K.K. Shailaja said in a statement on Monday that at present, there are 22,066 active cases in kerala, while 67,001 persons have been cured of the disease.

"On Monday, 2,246 persons have been cured. The state also reported 12 deaths, taking the overall death toll to 359. Across the state, 2,00,651 people are under observation, of which 18,130 are in hospitals. There are 575 hotspots in the state presently," said Shailaja.

On Sunday, Finance Minister Thomas Issac became the first state minister to test positive and according to the health officials, his fever has come down on Monday and he is under treatment at the Medical College hospital here.

Consequent to Issac turning Covid positive, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Shailaja have gone into self-isolation, the second time after the pandemic struck.

The Cabinet meeting scheduled for Tuesday has also been postponed to next week.