Hyderabad, Aug 31 (IANS): The daily count of Covid-19 cases in Telangana declined to 1,873 on Monday with the slump in the number of tests while nine fresh fatalities pushed the death toll to 827.

The state's tally of cases mounted to 1,24,963, out of which 31,299 are active cases.

The state had reported 2,924 cases the previous day while 61,148 samples were tested.

After conducting nearly 62,000 tests every day for the last seven days, the health authorities brought down the number to 37,791 during the last 24 hours ending 8 p.m. Sunday.

According to a media bulletin issued from the office of the Director of Public Health and Family Welfare, 17,006 primary contacts and 5,290 secondary contacts were tested. The results of 800 samples are awaited.

The total number of tests conducted so far rose to 13,65,582. Over 4.30 lakh of these samples were tested during the last seven days till Saturday.

A total of 17 government and 35 private laboratories are conducting these tests while the state has 1,076 rapid antigen tests centres. Unlike some other states, the authorities in Telangana have not been providing breakup of the type of tests conducted.

The officials claimed that with 36,782 samples tested per million population, the number of tests conducted in the state is much higher than the daily testing target of 5,600 per day as per the World Health Organisation (WHO) benchmark of 140 per million per day.

Out of total 1,24,963 positive cases detected so far, 69 per cent are asymptomatic while the rest are symptomatic.

The health officials said the case fatality rate of the state is low at 0.66 per cent against the national average of 1.78 per cent. Out of the total fatalities, 53.87 per cent had comorbidities.

Of the fresh cases recorded in the state, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) accounted for 360. Rangareddy and Medchal Malkajgiri districts abutting GHMC reported 129 and 41 cases respectively. Sangareddy, another district bordering the state capital, recorded 37 new cases.

With 180 cases, Karimnagar emerged as the second with the highest number of fresh infections after Greater Hyderabad. This is the first time that a district other than Rangareddy and Medchal Malkajgiri reported the second highest number.

Khammam reported 103 new cases. Five districts, which had reported over 100 new cases each previous day, saw the numbers dropping to below 100 each. Warangal Urban and Nizamabad reported 94 cases each. The numbers in Siddipet district surged by 85 while Nalgonda saw 79 new cases.

During the last 24 hours, 1,849 people recovered from Covid-19, taking the total number of recoveries to 92,837. The state's recovery rate stands at 73.3 per cent against the national average of 76.55 per cent.

The number of active cases in the state stands at 31,299 including 24,216 in home/institutional isolation.

Age wise Covid positive details show that 65.3 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 maintain physical distancing.

Among Covid positive cases, 24.71 per cent are above 51 years of age. About 10 per cent were aged below 20 years.

Officials said 64.41 per cent of those tested positive were male, while the remaining 35.59 per cent were female.

According to the media bulletin, out of 20,396 beds under the government, 17,691 beds are vacant including 1,512 ICU beds and 4,584 oxygen beds.

A total of 172 private hospitals treating Covid in the state have 9,200 beds, out of which 4,822 are vacant.