In a sign of some let-up in the COVID-19 surge, the number of novel coronavirus positive cases in Telangana was 1,278 on Friday although the State government has stepped up testing with the single-day tests crossing 10,000 samples. Of the 10,354 samples tested, 9,076 were negative.

With eight more COVID deaths, the total fatalities has gone up to 339 and the number of positive cases so far has reached 32,224. As 1,013 were discharged/declared recovered after treatment during the day, the number of COVID positives recovered has also gone up to 19,205. The active cases stood at 12,680 as on Friday evening. The number of tests has also crossed the 1.5 lakh mark and were at 1,151,109 at the end of the day.

In spite of this let-up, the GHMC areas continue to be at the top of the chart with 762 positive cases, followed by 171 in Rangareddy and 85 in Medchal-Malkajgiri. The occupancy of beds in the hospitals designated for COVID treatment has also gone up to 9.5% from 9% on the previous day.

According to media bulletin issued by the Directorate of Public Health and Family Welfare, against the availability of 17,081 beds with isolation, oxygen and intensive care facilities, the number of beds available is 15,463 and another 1,618 being occupied.

As the number of positive cases in the GHMC area has shown some downward trend, the cases in the district were on the rise with Sangareddy reporting 36 positive cases followed by 32 in Nalgonda, 23 in Kamareddy, 22 in Medak, 18 in Khammam, 17 in Mancherial and 14 each in Surypet, Adilabad and Mahabubnagar. In 15 other districts, positive cases reported were in single-digit.

The official medical bulletin has put the percentage of recoveries among COVID cases at 60 and the fatalities at one. Among the positive cases, 4% are severely symptomatic, 13% are moderately symptomatic and the remaining 83% are asymptomatic or with mild symptoms.