Telangana’s Covid tally mounts to 1,17,415; death toll at 799

Hyderabad, Aug 28 : Telangana has reported 2,932 fresh Covid-19 cases, pushing the tally to 1,17,415, health officials said on Friday.

The death toll in the state has mounted to 799 with 11 more fatalities.

During the last 24 hours 61,863 tests were conducted. The total number of tests conducted so far has gone up to 12,04,343, officials added.

Facing flak for its poor testing rate, the Telangana government has ramped up the number of tests. During the last six days, over 3.10 lakh tests were conducted.

According to the health department, a total of 16 government and 31 private laboratories are conducting RT-PCR/CBNAAT/TRUENAT types of tests while there are 1,076 rapid antigen tests centres. However, unlike the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, the authorities in Telangana have not been providing the breakup of the type of tests conducted.

The officials claimed that with 32,439 samples tested per million population, the state is conducting higher number of tests 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 771 samples were awaited.

Health officials said the case fatality rate in the state is also low at 0.68 per cent against the national average of 1.84 per cent. Out of the total fatalities, 53.87 per cent had comorbidities.

The number of cases in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) rose again to 520 against 449 the previous day. Rangareddy and Medchal Malkajgiri districts abutting GHMC reported 218 cases each. Sangareddy, another district bordering the state capital, saw 49 new cases.

Outside GHMC and surrounding districts, Karimnagar was the worst affected district with 168 new cases followed by Nalgonda with 159, Khammam with 141 cases, Nizamabad 129 and Jagtiyal 113. Mancherial reported 110 cases, Suryapet 102, Siddipet 100, Bhadradri Kothagudem 89 and Warangal Urban 80.

The total number of recoveries in the state stands at 87,675. The state’s recovery rate stands at 74.6 per cent against the national average of 76.33 per cent. The number of active cases in the state stands at 28,941 including 22,097 in home/institutional isolation.

Age-wise Covid positive details show that 65.3 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 maintaining physical distancing.

Among COVID positive cases, 24.71 per cent are above 51 years of age. About 10 per cent were aged below 20 years. Officials said 64.41 per cent of those tested positive were male while the remaining 35.59 per cent were female. According to the media bulletin, out of 20,396 beds in government-run hospitals, 17,817 beds are vacant including 1,590 ICU beds and 4,756 oxygen beds.

A total of 171 hospitals treating Covid patients in the state have 9,160 beds, out of which 4,895 are vacant.

–IANS
ms/avk/sdr/