Telangana has slashed the number of daily Covid-19 tests in the last few days which has resulted in fewer cases being reported.
During the last 24 hours ending 8 p.m. on Wednesday, the authorities conducted 38,895 tests against daily average 55,000 to 60,000 samples tested over the last couple of months. There was no official word for conducting fewer tests.
As a result of the drop in the number of tests, the state is consistently reporting a daily count of less than 2,000 cases. On Thursday, the state reported 1,432 positive cases.
The previous day, 40,056 tests were conducted. Only 30,000 tests were conducted on Saturday-Sunday.
The latest infections rose the cumulative tally to 2,17,670. Of this 23, 203 are active including 19,084 who are in home isolation.
The state continues to see more recoveries from Covid-19 than the new infections.
As many as 1,949 people recovered from the virus during the last 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries to 1,93,218.
The state's recovery rate climbed further to 88.76 per cent against the national average of 87.3 per cent.
Eight more people succumbed to the virus during the period, pushing the death toll to 1,249.
The fatality rate remains at 0.57 per cent against the national average of 1.5 per cent.
Officials said the percentage of deaths due to Covid-19 was 44.96 while the remaining 55.04 had co-morbidities.
Of 38,895 samples tested, 17,113 were primary and 4,667 secondary. According to a media bulletin from the office of the director of public health and family welfare, 36,362 tests were conducted in government-run laboratories and 2,533 in private.
Seventeen government-run laboratories, 44 private laboratories and 1076 Rapid Antigen test centres are conducting the tests.
Samples tested per million population ratio rose further to 99,490. The daily testing target for the state is 5,600 per day as per the World Health Organisation (WHO) benchmark of 140 per million per day.
Out of 2,17,670 total positive cases so far, 70 per cent (1,52,369) were asymptomatic while the remaining 30 per cent (65,301) were symptomatic.
Of the new cases registered during the last 24 hours, Greater Hyderabad accounted for 244 cases.
Medchal Malkajgiri district recorded second highest number of cases at 115 followed by Bhadradri Kothagudem (99), Khammam (91), Rangareddy (88), Karimnagar (74), ,Nalgonda (74), Khammam (52) and Suryapet (53).
The data shows that 63.9 per cent of those tested positive so far are in the age group of 21-50 years while 22.91 are above 51 years of age. Those below 20 years are 13.18 per cent.
Officials said 64.64 per cent of those tested positive were male while the remaining 38.37 per cent were female.
The data also shows most of the beds in government and private hospitals treating Covid patients are vacant.
Out of total 8,792 beds in 62 government-run Covid hospitals, 7,095 are vacant.
A total 228 private hospitals treating COVID patients have 9,037 beds, of which 6,615 are vacant.
