2,795 new COVID-19 cases in Telangana, tally at 1,14,483

Hyderabad, Aug 27 (IANS) Telangana on Thursday reported 2,795 new Covid-19 cases and eight deaths, taking the state's tally to 1,14,483 while the death toll has climbed to 788.

A day after recording the highest single-day spike with 3,018 cases, the numbers declined across the state. This was despite the authorities conducting more than 60,000 tests in the last 24 hours. Till 8 pm on Wednesday, 60,386 tests were conducted while 61,040 samples were tested on Tuesday. In total, 11,42,480 tests have been done till now, according to the state's health department.

Facing flak for its poor testing rate, the Telangana government has doubled the daily number of tests. During the last five days, more than 2.5 lakh tests were conducted.

As many as 16 government and 31 private laboratories were conducting RT-PCR/CBNAAT/TRUENAT type of tests while there were 1,076 rapid-antigen test centres. However, unlike the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, the authorities in Telangana have not given the breakup of the type of tests conducted.

They claim that with 30,772 samples tested per million population, the state had conducted higher number of tests against a daily testing target of 5,600 as per the World Health Organisation (WHO) benchmark of 140 per million per day.

Health officials said the Covid-19 cases fatality rate in the state came down further to 0.68 per cent against the national average of 1.84 per cent. Of the fatalities, 53.87 per cent had comorbidities.

The number of active cases in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) declined to 449 from 475 on Wednesday. Rangareddy and Medchal Malkajgiri districts abutting GHMC reported 268 and 113 new cases respectively. Sangareddy, another district bordering the state capital, reported 34 new cases.

Outside GHMC and the surrounding districts, Nalgonda was the worst-affected district with 164 new cases, followed by Khammam with 152 cases, Karimnagar (136), Warangal Urban (132), Siddipet (113) and Nizamabad with (112). Mancherial reported 106 cases, Mahabubabad 102, Jagtiyal 89, Suryapet 86, Bhadradri Kothagudem 72 and Wanaparthy 55.

During the last 24 hours, 872 people recovered from Covid-19, taking the total number of recoveries to 86,095. The state's recovery rate stands at 75.2 per cent against the national average of 76.28 per cent.

The number of active cases in the state stands at 27,600, including 20,866 in home/institutional isolation.

Age-wise Covid-positive details show that 65.3 per cent of those testing 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 social distancing.

Among Covid-19 positive cases, 24.71 per cent were above 51 years. Nearly 10 per cent were aged below 20 years.

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

According to the media release, of 20,396 beds in government-run hospitals, 17,958 beds were vacant, including 1,590 ICU beds and 4,756 oxygen beds.

As many as 171 hospitals treating Covid-19 in the state have 9,136 beds, of which 4,890 were vacant.