Hyderabad: Telangana on Wednesday witnessed a surge in Covid-19 cases during the last 24 hours with the daily count touching 247, the highest this year.
The fresh cases pushed the state’s tally to 3,01,769. For the first time since the pandemic broke out last year, Greater Hyderabad reported fewer cases than other districts.
Mancherial reported the highest infections at 45, including 42 students and staff of a government high school.
The second highest daily count was reported from Medchal Malkajgiri district, followed by Kamareddy (35).
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, which has been topping the list of 33 districts since last year, reported 29 cases. Rangareddy district saw 10 cases. Remaining 28 districts reported cases in single digits.
Health authorities sounded alert
The sudden spurt in cases has sent alarm bells ringing in the state administration. The health authorities had already sounded an alert following surge in cases in neighbouring Maharashtra and Karnataka.
With the latest fatalities, the cumulative death toll mounted to 1,659. 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.
The number of active cases rose further to 2,101 including 716 who are in home or institutional isolation. After a gap of more than one and half months, the active Covid-19 cases had crossed 2,000 on Tuesday.
Number of people recovered
A total of 158 people recovered from the virus during the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative recoveries to 2,98,009. The recovery rate stands at 98.75 per cent but still above the national average of 96.5 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 60,527 tests were conducted during the last 24 hours. Of this 54,993 samples were tested in government laboratories and remaining 5,534 in private laboratories.
With this, the number of tests conducted in the state so far climbed to 93,59,772. Samples tested per million population rose to 2,51,471.
Bed status in 62 government hospitals treating Covid-19 shows that 7,992 out of 8,419 beds were vacant. Similarly, in 215 private hospitals 6,708 out of 7,667 beds were vacant.