Hyderabad, Jan 19 (IANS): The Covid-19 recovery rate in Telangana has crossed 98 per cent as the state continued to see more recoveries than new cases.

The recovery rate jumped to 98.08 per cent against the national average of 96.6 per cent on Tuesday. During the last 24 hours, 298 people recovered from the virus, taking the cumulative recoveries to 2,86,542, health officials said on Tuesday.

The number of active cases dropped further to 4,005, including 2,283 who are in home or institutional isolation.

The state reported 256 new cases, taking the tally to 2,92,128.

Two more persons succumbed to the virus, taking the death toll to 1,581.

According to the director of public health and family welfare, the fatality rate remained 0.54 per cent against the national average of 1.4 per cent.

While 44.96 per cent of the deaths occurred due to Covid, 55.04 per cent had comorbidities.

The daily count in Greater Hyderabad continues to be below 100. The state capital saw 51 new cases during the last 24 hours. Medchal Malkajgiri district recorded the second highest number at 17 followed by Rangareddy (15), Karimnagar (11), Nalgonda (11), Warangal Urban, Peddapalli and Mancherial 10 each. The daily count in the remaining districts was in single digit.

During the last 24 hours, authorities conducted 31,486 tests. While 29,385 samples were tested in the government labs, 2,101 tests were conducted in the private labs. With this the cumulative number of tests conducted in the state rose to 75,15,066. Tests per million population reached 2,01,909.

According to officials, 70 per cent of 2,92,128 cases reported in the state so far were asymptomatic.

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.