With 1,967 new Covid cases, Telangana’s tally nears one lakh
Hyderabad, Aug 21 (IANS) Covid-19 cases in Telangana reached close to one lakh on Friday with 1,967 more samples testing positive for the virus.
Health officials said the new cases pushed the state’s tally to 99,391 while eight more succumbed to the virus, taking the death toll to 737.
Health officials said the fatality rate in the state stood at 0.74 per cent against the national average of 1.90 per cent. Out of the total fatalities, 53.87 per cent had comorbidities.
According to a media bulletin issued by the office of the Director of Public Health and Family Welfare, the number of cases increased both in Greater Hyderabad and the districts.
Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) reported 473 new cases against 395 the previous day. Medchal Malkajgiri and Rangareddy district abutting GHMC reported 170 and 202 cases respectively. Sangareddy, another district bordering the state capital, saw 38 new cases.
Outside GHMC and surrounding districts, Warangal Urban remained the worst-affected district with 101 cases. Karimnagar reported 86 new cases while 81 samples tested positive in Jagtiyal. Officials said 79 cases were reported from Khammam, 69 from Nizamabad and 55 each from Jogulamba Gadwal and Kamareddy districts.
During the last 24 hours, authorities conducted 26,767 tests, the highest in a single day. The number of tests conducted in the state so far rose to 8,48,078. The samples tested per million population is 22,843 against a daily testing target of 5,600 per day as per the World Health Organisation (WHO) benchmark of 140 per million per day. The results of 1,300 samples were awaited.
A total of 16 government and 23 private laboratories are conducting RT-PCR/CBNAAT/TRUENAT types of tests while there are 1076 rapid antigen tests centres. However, the authorities have not been providing a breakup of the tests.
During the last 24 hours ending Thursday 8 p.m., 1,781 people recovered from COVID, taking the total number of recoveries to 76,967. The state’s recovery rate further improved to 77.43 per cent against the national average of 73.91 per cent.
The number of active cases in the state stands at 21,687 including 15,332 who were in home/institutional isolation.
Age-wise COVID positive details show that 65.9 per cent of those tested 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 physical distancing.
Among COVID positive cases, 24.4 per cent are above 51 years of age. About 10 per cent were aged below 20 years.
Officials said 65.10 per cent of those tested positive were male while the remaining 34.90 per cent were female.
According to the media bulletin, out of 20,396 beds in government-run hospitals, 18,011 beds were vacant.
The authorities added 12 more private hospitals to the list of private facilities treating COVID patients. A total of 167 private hospitals treating COVID patients have a total of 9,048 beds and out of them 5,078 beds were vacant.
According to the media bulletin, the state has over 800 containment zones with the highest 131 in Ranga Reddy district, followed by 111 in Mahabunagar, 87 in Rajanna Sircilla and 81 in Gadwal. Greater Hyderabad has 65 containment zones.
–IANS
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