Hyderabad, Dec 24 (IANS): Telangana reported 574 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, taking the state's tally to 2,83,556, health officials said.

During the last 24 hours, two more persons succumbed to the virus, pushing the death toll to 1,524.

The fatality rate remained 53 per cent against the national average of 1.4 per cent.

According to director of public health and family welfare, 44.96 per cent of the deaths occurred due to Covid while 55.04 per cent had comorbidities.

The state saw 384 recoveries during the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative numbers to 2,75,217.

The recovery rate stands at 97.05 per cent as against the national average of 95.7 per cent.

The number of active cases in the state is now 6,815 including 4,487 who are in home or institutional isolation.

During the last 24 hours, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) reported 109 new cases.

Rangareddy district saw the second highest number of new cases at 48 followed by Medchal Malkajgiri (42), Warangal Urban (34), Karimnagar (30), Khammam (25), Nalgonda (22) and Bhadradri Kothagudem (22).

Of the 44,516 tests conducted during the last 24 hours, government-run laboratories accounted for 40,900 while the remaining 3,607 samples were tested in private labs.

Samples tested per million population ratio rose further to 1,77,622.

The daily testing target for the state is 5,600 per day as per the World Health Organisation (WHO) benchmark of 140 per million per day, officials said

Eighteen government-run laboratories, 56 private laboratories and 1,076 Rapid Antigen test centres are conducting the tests in the state.

The data shows that 63.9 per cent of those tested positive so far were aged between 21-50 years. As many as 22.91 per cent were aged above 51 years. The positive cases include 13.18 per cent who were below 20 years.

Of the total cases, 60.44 per cent were male and 39.37 per cent female.

Over 90 per cent of beds in government-run and private hospitals treating Covid-19 in the state remained vacant.

Out of 8,559 beds available in 61 government hospitals treating Covid, 7,804 beds were vacant. A total of 755 people were undergoing treatment in these hospitals.

Similarly, in 219 private hospitals treating Covid-19, only 1,373 beds were occupied. Out of 7,869 beds, 6,496 were vacant.