HYDERABAD   -   As many as 54 patients have tested positive for COVID-19 during the last 24 hours, taking the tally of coronavirus cases to 8,677 in Hyderabad district on Sunday. According to health authorities, 8,677 people have been infected out of the total 97,445 tests conducted so far in the district, of them 7,541 were fully recovered while 169 had lost their lives since outbreak of the contagion in March 2020. Out of 967 active COVID-19 patients, 44 are admitted in LU hospitals Hyderabad and Jamshoro, while rest of them are isolated at their homes, officials said. The district administration had extended smart lockdown for ten more days in 10 hotspot areas of district Hyderabad from December 19 to December 28 and all notified areas were sealed. The DC also urged the people to adopt standard operating procedures (SOPs) as preventive measures to curb the contagion as prevention was the only way to contain it from spreading further. Local administration has already launched awareness campaigns in different areas through announcements made through loudspeakers for adopting preventive measures to contain COVID-19 spread.