Hyderabad, Sep 14 : The daily count of COVID-19 cases in Telangana dropped to 1,417 with the weekly dip in testing level. Like every weekend, the authorities conducted fewer tests, resulting in the drop in cases during the last 24 hours ending 8 p.m. Sunday. The new cases pushed the tally to 1,58,513 while 13 fresh fatalities pushed the death toll to 974. The case fatality rate in the state stands at 0.61 per cent against the national average of 1.64 per cent. The health authorities conducted 34,427 tests, down from about 60,000 cases conducted on week days. With this the number of samples tested so far mounted to 21,69,339. The number of recovered cases at 2,479 is much higher than the new positive cases reported. With this the recoveries have gone up to 1,27,007. The recovery rate also crossed 80 per cent against the national average of 77.87 per cent. The number of active cases in the state stands at 30,532 including 23,639 in home/institutional isolation. A total of 17 government and 38 private laboratories and 1,076 rapid antigen tests centres across the state conducted 34,427 tests. These include 15,492 primary and 4,820 secondary contacts. However, there was no break-up RT PCR and rapid antigen tests. The state health authorities said samples tested per million population improved further to 58,431. This is much higher than the daily testing target of 5,600 per day as per the World Health Organisation (WHO) benchmark of 140 per million per day. ADuring the last 24 hours, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) reported 264 new cases. Neighbouring districts Rangareddy and Medchal Malkajgiri reported 133 and 25 cases respectively. Sangareddy, another district bordering the state capital, recorded 107 cases. Outside Hyderabad and surrounding districts, Karimnagar recorded the highest single-day jump of 108.A Siddipet added 75 cases. Warangal Urban saw 70 new cases, Nizamabad 67 and Mahabubabad 54. According to the director of public health, 69 per cent of 1,58,513 cases reported so far in the state were asymptomatic. Age wise COVID positive details show that 65.23 per cent of those tested positive were in the age group of 21-50 years. Officials said that the ratio of those above 51 years dropped to 21.82 against 24.71 per cent earlier. Those below 20 years are now 12.95 per cent against 10 per cent earlier. Officials said 64.83 per cent of those tested positive were male while the remaining 38.17 per cent were female. Out of 20,396 beds under government, 17,751 beds are vacant including 1,574 ICU beds. The number of private hospitals treating COVID patients rose to 203 with the government adding four more hospitals to the list. They have 10,660 beds, out of which 6,412 are vacant. /IANS