Hyderabad, Dec 31 : In a further drop in new Covid cases in Telangana, the health authorities on Thursday reported 415 new infections during the last 24 hours. The new cases detected out of a sample size of over 43,000 pushed the state's tally to 2,86,354. Three more persons succumbed to the virus during the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 1,541. The fatality rate remained 53 per cent against the national average of 1.4 per cent. According to director of public health and family welfare, 44.96 per cent of the deaths occurred due to COVID while 55.04 per cent had comorbidities. Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) reported 91 new cases during last 24 hours. This is the fifth time in a week that the daily count of cases dropped to below 100. Rangareddy district saw the second highest number of new cases at 43 followed by Medchal Malkajgiri (39), Karimnagar (33), Warangal Urban (31) and Mancherial (17). The state saw 316 recoveries during the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative numbers to 2,78,839. The recovery rate stands at 97.37 per cent as against the national average of 96 per cent. The number of active cases in the state has also dropped to below 6,000. The number now stands at 5,974including 3,823 who are in home or institutional isolation. Over 90 per cent of beds in government-run and private hospitals treating COVID-19 in the state remained vacant. Out of 8,584 beds available in 61 government hospitals treating COVID, 7,834 beds were vacant. A total of 750 people were undergoing treatment in these hospitals. Similarly, in 219 private hospitals treating COVID, only 1,401 beds were occupied. Out of 7,790 beds, 6,389 were vacant. Of the 43,413 tests conducted during the last 24 hours, government-run laboratories accounted for 39,210 while remaining 4,203 samples were tested in private labs. Samples tested per million population ratio rose further to 1,84,919. The daily testing target for the state is 5,600 per day as per the World Health Organisation (WHO) benchmark of 140 per million per day, officials said Eighteen government-run laboratories, 56 private laboratories and 1076 Rapid Antigen test centres are conducting the tests in the state. The data shows that 63.9 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. Of the total cases, 60.44 per cent were male and 39.37 per cent female. /IANS