Hyderabad, Feb 1 (IANS): The death toll due to Covid-19 in Telangana crossed 1,600 on Monday, health officials said.

Two more persons succumbed to the virus during the last 24 hours, pushing the toll to 1,601.

The state had reported first Covid death in the last week of March last year. The toll crossed 1,000 in September while it climbed to 1,500 in December.

According to 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.

During the last 24 hours, the state reported 118 new cases due to the weekly drop in the number of tests. The cumulative number of cases mounted to 2,94,587.

A total of 264 people recovered from the virus, taking the cumulative number to 2,90,894.

The recovery rate improved further to 98.74 per cent against the national average of 97 per cent.

The active cases also dropped to 2,092 including 723 who are in home or institutional isolation.

The daily count of cases in Greater Hyderabad dropped further to 26. Rangareddy district logged 13 cases while the daily count in remaining 31 districts was in single digit.

During the last 24 hours, 17,686 tests were conducted - 13,711 in government labs and 3,975 in private labs. With this the cumulative number of tests conducted in the state rose to 78,79,047. Tests per million population climbed to 2,11,688.

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

Majority of the beds in hospitals treating Covid cases remained vacant. As many as 8,029 beds out of 8,577 beds in 62 government hospitals were vacant. Similarly, in 217 private hospitals, 6,873 out of 7,694 beds were vacant.