In some relief for Kerala,968 people have recovered from COVID-19 on Friday against 885 positive cases, including 24 health workers, while four deaths were reported, pushing the toll to 54. Of the new cases, 724 had contracted the virus through contact and the source of infectionof 56 patients is not yet known, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said. As many as 9,371 people are presently under treatment for the disease. During the past two days the state had witnessed a sharp surge in positive cases, clocking over 1,000 cases on a single day. With the addition of 885 cases, the tally of infections in the state rose to 16,995. Sixty four returnees from abroad have tested positive for the disease, while 68 who had come back from other states also were infected. Four deaths have been reported- two from Kasaragod and one each from Thiruvananthapuram and Alappuzha districts, the Chief Minister said. Among the districts that reported positive cases were Thiruvananthapuram 167, Kollam 133, Kasaragod 106, Kozhikode 82, Ernakulam 69, Malappuram and Palakkad 58 each, Kottayam 50, Allapuzha 44, Thrissur 33, Idukki 29, Pathnamthitta 23, Kannur 18 and Wayanad 15. In the last 24 hours, 25,160 samples were tested. At least 1.56 lakh people are under observation, 9,297 in various hospitals, including 1346 patients admitted today. So far, 3.38 lakhsamples have been tested and results of 9185 are awaited. There are 453 hotspots as of today.