Hyderabad, Aug 22 (IANS): In the highest single-day jump, Telangana on Saturday reported 2,474 new Covid-19 cases, pushing the state's tally to over one lakh.

With the new cases, the cumulative number of Covid-19 cases in the state rose to 1,01,865. Telangana became the ninth state in the country to cross the one-lakh-mark.

Seven more people succumbed to the virus during the last 24 hours ending Friday 8 p.m, taking the death toll to 744.

Health officials said the fatality rate in the state stood at 0.73 per cent against the national average of 1.89 per cent. Out of the total fatalities, 53.87 per cent had comorbidities.

According to a media bulletin issued by the office of the Director of Public Health and Family Welfare, the number of cases declined in Greater Hyderabad but rose sharply in districts.

Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) reported 447 new cases against 473 the previous day. Medchal Malkajgiri and Rangareddy district abutting GHMC reported 149 and 201 cases respectively. Sangareddy, another district bordering the state capital, saw 72 new cases.

Outside GHMC and surrounding districts, Nizamabad was the worst affected district with 153 new cases followed by Khammam with 125 cases, Warangal Urban with 123 cases and Nalgonda with 122 cases. Siddipet reported 92 new cases and Karimnagar reported 75 new cases while 91 samples tested positive in Jagtiyal. Officials said 79 cases were reported from Peddapalli, 63 from Suryapet, 59 from Jogulamba Gadwal and 52 from Rajanna Sircilla.

During the last 24 hours, authorities conducted a record 43,095 tests. This is the first time since the Covid-19 outbreak that the state has conducted over 40,000 tests. The number of tests conducted in the state so far rose to 8,91,173. The samples tested per million population mounted to 24,004 against a daily testing target of 5,600 per day as per the World Health Organisation (WHO) benchmark of 140 per million per day. The results of 1,239 samples were awaited.

A total of 16 government and 23 private laboratories are conducting RT-PCR/CBNAAT/TRUENAT types of tests while there are 1,076 rapid antigen tests centres. However, the authorities have not been providing breakup of the tests.

During the last 24 hours, 1,768 people recovered from Covid, taking the total number of recoveries to 78,735. The state's recovery rate stands at 77.29 per cent against the national average of 74.30 per cent.

The number of active cases in the state stands at 22,386 including 15,931 who were in home/institutional isolation.

Age-wise Covid positive details show that 65.9 per cent of those tested positive were in the age group of 21-50 years. Terming this as 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 maintaining physical distancing.

Among Covid positive, 24.4 per cent are above 51 years of age. About 10 per cent were aged below 20 years.

Officials said 65.10 per cent of those tested positive were male while the remaining 34.90 per cent were female. Out of 20,396 beds in government-run hospitals, 18,007 beds were vacant.