Hyderabad, Nov 13  The number of daily count of Covid cases in Telangana dropped to below 1,000 on Friday even as the cumulative tally surpassed 2.55 lakh-mark. The health authorities in the state tested 42,163 samples during the last 24 hours and of them 997 were found positive, pushing the tally to 2,55,663.  Four more people succumbed to the virus, taking the death toll to 1,397. The case fatality rate stands at 0.54 per cent, which is lower than the national average of 1.5 per cent.  According to the director of public health and family welfare, 44.96 per cent of the deaths were due to Covid while 55.04 had comorbidities.  The state continued to see more recoveries than new cases. As many as 1,222 people recovered from the virus during the last 24 hours ending 8 p.m. Thursday.  With this the cumulative number of recovered cases mounted to 2,37,172.  The recovery rate now stands at 92.75 per cent, slightly lower than the national average of 92.9 per cent.  For a second consecutive day, the daily count of positive cases was below 200 in Greater Hyderabad. Only 169 new cases were reported from the state capital. Medchal Malkajgiri saw the second highest number of cases at 85 followed by Rangareddy (66), Bhadradri Kothagudem (65), Karimnagar (49), Nalgonda (46), Khammam (44) and Warangal Urban (44).  The state now has 17,094 active cases, of which 14,466 are in home or institutional isolation.  According to a media bulletin by the health department, a total of 42,163 samples were tested during the last 24 hours and out of them 39,354 were conducted in the government-run laboratories.  The number of private laboratories conducting RT-PCR/CBNAAT/TRUENAT tests increased to 50 with three more laboratories receiving permission from the authorities concerned. There are 18 government-run laboratories and 1,076 Rapid Antigen testing centres.  The cumulative number of tests rose to 48,12,167. Samples tested per million population surged to 1,29,289.  Out of total 2,55,663 positive cases so far, 70 per cent (1,78,964) were asymptomatic and 30 per cent (76,699) symptomatic.  The data shows that 63.92 per cent of those tested positive so far were aged between 21-50 years. As many as 22.91 per cent were aged above 51 years. The positive cases include 13.18 per cent who were below 20 years.  The bed status in 61 government-run hospitals treating the Covid patients shows that 7,466 out of 8,561 beds are vacant.  In 224 private hospitals, 6,861 out of 8,394 beds are vacant.