Jharkhand on Monday reported a single-day spike of less than 50 Covid cases for the first time since the second wave hit the tribal state earlier this year, causing over 3,000 deaths and more than 1 lakh cases in hardly six months, figures released by the health department highlighted.

While the state reported a spike of only 46 cases against 93 Covid recoveries on the day, at least two more patients, one each from Gumla and East Singhbhum, died during treatment, a bulletin from the National Health Mission (NHM) stated.

The two fresh casualties reported on Monday took the Covid toll in Jharkhand to 5,117 and that in East Singhbhum to 1,038. However, Ranchi, which has reported 1585 Covid casualties so far, continues to be the worst-affected district in Jharkhand in terms of Covid caseload and fatalities.

With recoveries outnumbering fresh cases on Monday, the active caseload in Jharkhand dropped to 609, the NHM stated in its daily Covid bulletin. While none of the 24 districts in Jharkhand reported a double-digit-spike in cases, at least nine districts – Ramgarh, Pakur, Koderma, Jamtara, Hazaribag, Godda, Garhwa, Dumka and Chatra – did not report fresh cases of coronavirus infection on the day.

By the end of Monday, there were 100 active cases of Covid-19 in Ranchi, while all the remaining 23 districts had fewer cases. Ranchi reported eight cases against nine recoveries on the day, while East Singhbhum reported six cases against 11 recoveries, which brought the active caseload there down to 55. Bokaro reported three cases against four recoveries and Dhanbad reported two cases against three recoveries.

The state on the day tested swab samples of 49,659 residents and less than 0.1 per cent of them were found infected by the deadly virus. As per government data, over 3.45 lakh people have contracted Covid-19 in the state so far and 98.34 per cent of them have recovered. The Covid mortality rate in the state was 1.47 per cent against the national average of 1.30 per cent.

As per NHM data, the growth rate of Covid-19 in the state was 0.02 per cent against the national average of 0.10 per cent. The doubling rate in Jharkhand reached 3662.90 days against the national doubling rate of 664.89 days on Monday.

The state on Monday administered over 1 lakh vaccines against Covid-19 for the second day in a row. As per government data, as many as 70,409 residents, including almost 57,000 from the age bracket of 18 years to 44 years, were administered the first dose of the vaccine on Monday. The second dose was administered to 25,703 beneficiaries, mostly those above the age of 45 years.