Telangana's Covid tests per million population cross 2-lakh mark

Hyderabad, Jan 17 Telangana's tests per million population for Covid-19 have crossed the 2-lakh mark with 33,298 more tests during the last 24 hours, health officials said on Sunday.

Tests per million population in Telangana are 2,00,475, which is higher than the national average of about 1.40 lakh.

Three months ago, Telangana had crossed the one-lakh mark for tests per million population. The state had initially come in for criticism for fewer tests but later it ramped up the numbers.

There are 19 government-run and 56 private laboratories and 1,076 Rapid Antigen test centres in the state, where about 40,000 tests are conducted daily. The numbers drop on week-ends and holidays.

According to health officials, the daily testing target for the state per World Health Organisation (WHO) benchmark is 140 per million per day.

During the last 24 hours, 29,240 more tests were conducted in government labs while 4,058 samples were tested in private labs. With this, the cumulative number of tests conducted in the state rose to 74,61,687.

Meanwhile, the state reported 299 new coronavirus cases, taking the total tally to 2,91,666.

Two more persons succumbed to the virus, taking the death toll to 1,577.

According to the Director of Public Health and Family Welfare, the fatality rate remained 0.54 per cent as against the national average of 1.4 per cent.

While 44.96 per cent of the deaths occurred due to Covid-19, 55.04 per cent had comorbidities.

The state continues to see more recoveries than new cases. A total of 379 more patients recovered during the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative recoveries to 2,85,898.

The recovery rate improved to 98.02 per cent as against than the national average of 96.6 per cent.

The number of active cases in the state is 4,191, including 2,395 patients in home or institutional isolation.

Greater Hyderabad reported 57 new cases during the last 24 hours. Medchal Malkajgiri district recorded the second highest 26 cases, followed by Karimnagar (24), Rangareddy (18), Bhadradri Kothagudem, and Mancherial and Sagareddy 11 each.

( With inputs from IANS )