Hyderabad, Jul 26 (IANS): As many as 1,593 new coronavirus cases took Telangana's total tally past the 54K-mark on Sunday, while eight more fatalities pushed up the state's death toll to 463.

For the first time since the outbreak, the state released a media bulletin on the corona situation in the morning. It said the state's corona cases now total 54,059.

The Health Department had not released the bulletin on Saturday night, saying it would be released on Sunday morning in a new format. However, it is not clear if the authorities will continue to release the daily bulletin in the mornings or follow the earlier practice.

The bulletin has a complete list of testing centres and COVID hospitals, both government and private. It also provided the status of bed availability in government-run COVID hospitals.

The move came a day before the Telangana High Court is scheduled to resume hearing of various Public Interest Litigations. At the last hearing, the court had pulled up the government for not implementing its previous orders, including the one to provide all information to the people through daily media bulletins.

The court had on four occasions voiced its unhappiness over the state government's handling of the COVID-19 situation. It has summoned the Chief Secretary and five top officials to appear in court on July 27.

Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao has directed the officials to provide comprehensive information to the court.

With a total death toll of 463, the death rate in the state is 0.86 per cent as against 2.3 per cent in the country.

With 998 patients cured and discharged during the last 24 hours, the total in this category has gone up to 41,332. The number of active cases stands at 12,264.

The state conducted 15,654 tests, the highest in a single day so far, taking the total to 3,53,425 tests so far.

The tests per million in the state is 391. The bulletin also mentions that the World Health Organisation recommended 140 TPM in a day.

Out of 17,081 beds in government-run COVID hospitals, 14,947 beds are vacant in the state.

According to the bulletin, the state has 16 government and 23 private testing facilities, which are conducting RT-PCR/CBNAAT/TUENAAT tests. There are 320 government centres where rapid antigen tests are being conducted.