Hyderabad, Aug 20 (IANS): The number of Covid-19 cases in Telangana reached 97,424 on Thursday as 1,724 more people tested positive while 10 more deaths have taken the toll to 729.
Health officials said the case fatality rate in the state stood at 0.74 per cent as compared to the national average of 1.91 per cent. Of the fatalities, 53.87 per cent had comorbidities.
Of the new cases, 395 were reported from hotspot Greater Hyderabad. The number in the state capital declined compared to Wednesday but the infection in the districts saw an upward trend.
The districts surrounding the state capital reported a little over 300 cases. Medchal Malkajgiri district reported 105 new cases while Rangareddy saw 169 new cases. Sangareddy, another district which share borders with Greater Hyderabad, reported 45 new cases.
According to a media release by the office of the Director of Public Health and Family Welfare, new cases were reported from all 33 districts. Three districts reported new cases in the single digit.
Outside Greater Hyderabad and its surrounding districts, Karimnagar was the worst affected district with 101 new cases, followed by 91 in Warangal Urban, 67 in Nalgonda and 61 each in Nizamabad and Siddipet.
During the last 24 hours ending 8 p.m. Wednesday, 1,195 people had recovered from Covid, taking the number of recoveries to 75,186. The state's recovery rate now stands at 77.17 per cent as compared to the national average of 73.64 per cent.
The number of active cases in the state stands at 21,509, including 15,076 who were in home/institutional isolation.
The number of tests in the state crossed eight lakh with 23,841 tests during the last 24 hours. The health authorities have conducted 8,21,311 tests till now. The samples tested per million population is 22,122 against a daily testing target of 5,600 as per the World Health Organisation (WHO) benchmark of 140 per million per day. The results of 968 samples are awaited.
As many as 16 government and 23 private laboratories were conducting RT-PCR/CBNAAT/TRUENAT types of tests while there were 1,076 rapid-antigen tests centres. However, the authorities have not provided a break-up of the tests.
Age-wise COVID positive details show 65.9 per cent of those who tested positive were in the age group of 21 to 50 years. Being a susceptible age group, authorities have urged them not to go out unless absolutely necessary. They were advised to strictly exercise precautions like wearing face masks and maintain social distancing.
Among Covid positive cases, 24.4 per cent were above 51 years. Nearly 10 per cent were below 20 years.
Officials said 65.10 per cent of those who tested positive were male while the remaining 34.90 per cent were female.
According to the media release, of 20,396 beds in government-run hospitals, 17,949 beds were vacant.
The authorities added 23 more private hospitals to the list of private facilities treating Covid patients. As many as 155 private hospitals treating COVID have 8,641 beds and of them 4,655 beds were vacant.
According to the media release, the state has more than 800 containment zones with the highest 129 in Ranga Reddy district, followed by 101 in Mahabubnagar, 81 in Gadwal and 80 in Rajanna Sircilla. Greater Hyderabad has 64 containment zones.