The active caseload of Covid-19 in Jharkhand crossed the 30,000 mark while the Covid toll jumped above 1500 on Monday as the state reported 4290 cases and 46 casualties in the past 24 hours, figures compiled by the National Health Mission (NHM) revealed.
Ranchi, which already has an active caseload of over 10,000, reported 1404 fresh cases on the day – the highest among the 24 districts in Jharkhand. The state capital also reported 14 Covid fatalities, which took the toll in the district 381, the NHM stated in a bulletin released on Monday night. At least 11,737 Ranchi residents were battling the viral infection by the end of Monday.
Barring Ranchi, no other district reported a spike of over 1000 cases on the day. However, at least 10 more Covid patients died in East Singhbhum on Monday, taking the toll there up at 438, which is highest among Jharkhand districts, NHM data highlighted. At least 639 cases against 178 recoveries took the active caseload in East Singhbhum to 4661.
As per government data, the state tested swab samples of 36,290 people on Monday and more than 10 per cent of them were found infected. However, the state also reported 1777 Covid recoveries on the day, which contained the active caseload to 30,477.
Government records highlight that as many as 1,67,235 Jharkhand residents have been infected by the Covid-19 virus so far, and around 80.87 per cent of them have recovered. The Covid recovery rate in the state has dropped from over 98 per cent to 80 per cent in the past one month.
The growth rate of infection in the state has also jumped to 2.10 per cent from hardly 0.10 per cent in March. The growth rate in Jharkhand was higher than the national average of 1.18 per cent. With the unprecedented rise in cases, the doubling rate in Jharkhand has dropped to 33.35 days against the national average of 59.25 days. This indicates that it would take hardly 33 days for the cases to double in Jharkhand.
While the second wave of Covid-19 has revealed lacunae in the health machinery in Jharkhand, the vaccination targets against Covid-19 have also been difficult to achieve. On Monday, the state administered the first dose of the vaccine to 18,758 people, hardly 27 per cent of those registered. The second jab was administered to 7,622 beneficiaries, only 3 per cent of the more than 2.68 lakh registered for the dose, stated a report released by the NHM.