Hyderabad, Mar 16 (IANS): After a gap of more than one-and-half months, the active Covid-19 cases in Telangana crossed 2,000 as the state continued to see more new infections than recoveries.

The state reported 204 new cases during the last 24 hours while 170 people recovered from the virus during the period, health officials said on Tuesday.

The active cases jumped to 2,015. The number had dropped below 2,000-mark on February 4.

For the third time during last one week, the state logged over 200 cases. New infections pushed the state's tally to 3,01,522.

Two more persons succumbed to the virus, taking the death toll to 1,656. The fatality rate remained at 0.54 per cent against the national average of 1.4 per cent.

While 44.96 per cent of deaths were due to Covid-19, remaining 55.04 died due to comorbidities.

According to the daily media bulletin released by the director of public health and family welfare, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation reported 37 new cases, followed by Medchal Malkajgiri (14) and Rangareddy (12). Only one district reported no cases while in remaining 29 districts the count was in single digit.

The active cases include 624 who are in home/institutional isolation.

The cumulative recoveries rose to 2,97,851. The recovery rate stands at 98.78 per cent but still above the national average of 96.6 per cent.

With an alert sounded in view of the surge in Covid cases in neighbouring Mahrashtra and Karnataka, authorities in Telangana ramped up daily tests.

A total of 60,263 tests were conducted during the last 24 hours. Of this 55,201 samples were tested in government laboratories and remaining 5,062 in private laboratories.

With this the number of tests conducted in the state so far climbed to 92,99,245. Samples tested per million population rose to 2,49,845.

Bed status in 62 government hospitals treating Covid-19 shows that 8,013 out of 8,454 beds were vacant. Similarly, in 215 private hospitals 6,716 out of 7,667 beds were vacant.