Hyderabad, Jul 9 (IANS): In the steepest single-day jump, Telangana on Wednesday reported 1,924 more Covid-19 cases, pushing the state's tally to 29,536.

The death toll mounted to 324 with 11 new fatalities.

According to the director of public health and family welfare, hotspot Greater Hyderabad accounted for 1,590 cases. Neighbouring districts of Ranga Reddy, Medchal and Sangareddy also witnessed a spike. They together saw 162 new cases.

The remaining cases were reported from 21 other districts.

Officials said 992 people recovered from the disease during the last 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries to 17,279. A total of 11,933 people were undergoing treatment in hospitals or at home.

Under fire from various quarters for low testing, the state health authorities ramped up testing during the last few days. As many as 6,362 samples were tested during the last 24 hours. With this, the number of tests conducted moved up to 1,34,801.

According to the media bulletin, 15,752 beds out of 17,081 beds in government-run Covid hospitals were vacant. Only 1,329 beds were occupied and they include 181 ICU beds.

The Gandhi Hospital, Secunderabad is identified as the "Centre of Excellence for Covid Care", where serious cases are admitted. The other major hospitals in Hyderabad where suspects and moderately symptomatic cases are admitted are District Hospital King Koti, Government Chest Hospital, Sir Ronald Ross Institute of Tropical Medicine (Fever hospital).

The asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic patients requesting for institutional quarantine are admitted in Nature Cure Hospital, the Government Nizamia Hospital, the Government Ayurveda Hospital and the Government Homeopathy Hospital, said the bulletin.