Hyderabad, Jul 17 (IANS): As many as 1,676 new coronavirus cases were confirmed in Telangana on Thursday, taking the number of affected in the state to 41,018, health officials said.

Ten more deaths were also reported in the state, taking the toll to 396 so far.

The state on Thursday tested 14,027 samples, the highest in a single day since the outbreak of COVID-19. With this the state has conducted 2,22,693 tests.

After ramping up the tests in the last few days, the state health authorities on Thursday changed the format of the daily media bulletin, providing all the vital statistics.

The tests per million population stand at 5,350. According to the bulletin, 18.85 per cent of the samples tested have found to be positive.

The media bulletin also mentioned that the state has 39 testing laboratories - 16 in the government sector and 23 private.

The state has a recovery rate of 67 per cent. On Thursday, 1,296 people recovered from COVID-19, taking the number of people recovered to 27,295. The state now has 13,328 active cases.

Out of 17,081 COVID beds in the government-run hospitals, 15,389 beds are vacant. Gandhi Hospital, which is designated as the centre of excellence for treating critical COVID cases, has 1,890 beds but 635 patients.

Greater Hyderabad remained the worst hit among 33 districts, accounting for 788 cases. Indicating the spread of the virus, the number of infections has increased in other districts. Ranga Reddy stands second with 224 cases and Medchal 160.

Karimnagar district reported 92 new cases, Nalgonda 64, Sangareddy 57 and Wanaparthy 51.