Hyderabad, Nov 18 : Telangana reported 948 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday to take the overall tally to 2,59,776, health officials said. Five more people succumbed to the virus during the last 24 hours, pushing the cumulative death toll to 1,415. The fatality rate remains at 0.54 per cent against the national average of 1.5 per cent. According to director of the public health and family welfare, 44.96 per cent of the deaths were due to Covid while the remaining 55.04 were on account of comorbidities. Greater Hyderabad continues to report a daily count of less than 200 positive cases. During the last 24 hours ending 8 p.m. Tuesday, the state capital added 154 new cases. Medchal Malkajgiri reported the second highest number at 83 followed by Rangareddy (76), Bhadradri Kothagudem (61), Karimnagar (55) and Nalgonda (45). As many as 1,607 people recovered from the virus during the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative number of recoveries to 2,45,293. The recovery rate improved further to 94.42 per cent against the national average of 93.5 per cent. According to the daily media bulletin released by the office of the director of public health and family welfare, the total number of active cases stands at 13,068 of which 10,710 are in home or institutional isolation. The laboratories in the state conducted 42,433 tests during the last 24 hours, taking cumulative number of tests to 49,72,407. Eighteen government-run laboratories, 50 private laboratories and 1,076 Rapid Antigen test centres are conducting the tests. Out of 42,433 samples tested during the last 24 hours, 39,365 samples were tested in government-run laboratories and 3,068 samples in private. Samples tested per million population ratio rose further to 1,33,595 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. Out of 2,59,776 total positive cases so far, 70 per cent (1,81,843) were asymptomatic while the remaining 30 per cent (77,933) were 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 Covid patients shows that 7,621 out of 8,561 beds are vacant. In 220 private hospitals, 6,799 out of 8,217 beds are vacant. /IANS