Hyderabad, In one of the highest daily jumps in coronavirus infections, Telangana reported 1,897 new cases that increased its total tally to 84,544 while nine more fatalities during the last 24 hours took its death toll to 654, officials said on Wednesday.

A spike in the number of new cases in Greater Hyderabad and surrounding districts led to the jump in daily count while the virus spread slowed down in other districts.

The state capital saw 479 new cases during the last 24 hours ending 8 pm on Tuesday. It had reported 338 of the 1,896 new cases the previous day.

Medchal Malkajgiri and Rangareddy bordering Greater Hyderabad reported 172 and 162 cases respectively. Sangareddy, another district which shares borders with the state capital, reported 107 new infections.

Thus, Hyderabad and surrounding districts together accounted for nearly 50 per cent of the new positive cases.

After a sudden spike in new infections a day earlier, several districts reported a slowdown. Karimnagar, for instance, saw 64 new cases as against 121 a day earlier. The numbers came down from 95 to 87 in Warangal Urban, 85 to 38 in Jogulamba Gadwal, 71 to 48 in Kamareddy and 60 to 44 in Bhadradri Kothagudem.

According to the media bulletin released by the Director of Public Health and Family Welfare, the new cases were reported from all 33 districts.

The corona fatality rate in the state stands at 0.77 per cent as against the national average of 1.99 per cent. Officials said 53.87 per cent of the deceased had comorbidities.

A total of 39 testing laboratories and 323 rapid antigen testing centres conducted a record 22,972 tests as against the state's target of 5,600. The World Health Organisation (WHO) benchmark is 140 tests per million per day.

Test results of 1,221 samples were awaited. The state has so far conducted 6,65,847 tests.

Officials said 1,920 COVID-19 patients recovered during the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative recoveries to 61,294.

The state further improved its recovery rate to 72.49 per cent as against the national average of 69.79 per cent.

The active cases now total 22,596, including 15,534 who are in home or institutional isolation. More than 84 per cent of those in home isolation are asymptomatic.

Data showed that 65.9 per cent of corona positive cases were in the age group of 21-50. Those above 51 years account for 24.4 per cent of the patients. A little above 10 per cent were aged below 20.

Officials said 65.10 per cent of corona positive patients were males and the remaining females.

According to the media bulletin, out of 20,396 beds in government-run hospitals, 17,782 beds were vacant.

While 116 private hospitals treating COVID-19 patients have a total of 7,775 beds, 3,327 of them were vacant.