Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 15 (IANS): As many as 5,624 more persons tested positive for coronavirus in Kerala on Friday while 4,603 patients recovered from the disease, Health Minister KK Shailaja's office said in a statement here.

The state's test positivity rate is 8.94 per cent. A total of 67,496 COVID-19 patients are under treatment in various hospitals.

Ernakulam recorded the highest 799 new cases and Kasargod the least 97 cases on Friday.

A total of 23 more fatalities took the state's death toll to 3,415, the statement added.

In all, 58 positive cases have come from outside Kerala, whereas 5,110 others tested positive through contact. The source of contact of 394 persons is unknown.

As many as 62 Kerala health workers also tested positive on Friday -- including 14 in Kozhikode, 10 in Pathanamthitta, 9 in Thiruvananthapuram, six in Thrissur, four each in Ernakulam, Palakkad, Wayanad, and Kannur, three each in Kollam and Idukki, and one in Malappuram.

In all, 2,02,080 persons are under observation, including 1,90,999 in home or institutional quarantine, and 11,081 in various hospitals in Kerala.

Two new hotspots declared on Friday -- Puthupariyaram (Containment Zone ward 12) in Palakkad district and Manalur (Ward 18) in Thrissur district -- took the total to 419 in Kerala.