Jharkhand witnessed the highest-ever single-day spike in Covid-19 cases on Tuesday as 685 people, including at least 231 from Ranchi alone, tested positive for the virus, government data stated.

This is the first instance when the number of fresh cases reported in a span of 24 hours crossed the 500 mark in the state, health officials said. The highest single-day-spike reported until Tuesday was 457 on July 26.

With Tuesday's findings, the total count of active cases in Jharkhand jumped to 5,485, a bulletin released by National Health Mission (NHM) stated. At least 1,222 of the 5,500-odd active cases are in Ranchi, the worst-affected district in the state.

The total count of Covid-19 cases reported in Jharkhand so far also neared 10,000 mark on Tuesday as the tally stood at 9,563, the NHM bulletin highlighted.

As many as 179 patients recovered from the infection on Tuesday, taking the total count of Covid recoveries in Jharkhand to 3,984. The recovery rate in Jharkhand was 41.66 per cent on Tuesday against the national average of 62.72 per cent, government data stated.

Only one Covid death was reported in Jharkhand on Tuesday from Hazaribagh, taking the toll in the state to 94. The Covid mortality rate in Jharkhand, as per government data, was 0.98 per cent against the national average of 2.34 per cent.

The government has so far collected swab samples of 2.82 lakh suspects and tested 2.72 lakh of them. Around 2.4 lakh people have been put in home quarantine in Jharkhand and nearly 6000 have been sent to institutional quarantine, health officials said.

Tuesday saw chief minister Hemant Soren inaugurating Jharkhand's first plasma bank at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS).

He urged those who had recovered from the infection to come forward and donate their blood plasma for treatment of Covid-19 patients. “I request all the Covid survivors to come forward and donate plasma for saving the lives of infected people. Their contribution will be seen as service to humankind at large,” said Hemant.

On the opening day of the plasma bank at RIMS, as many as four Covid survivors donated their plasma, health officials said. Dipu Kumar Singh (29), a choreographer from Ranchi who now lives in Mumbai, was the first. “It’s just like simple blood donation. Everybody who can, should donate their plasma as it will only help others to get over the virus,” he said.

Other donors, who had volunteered, were Prashant Kumar, a junior resident at the RIMS neurosurgery department, Sanjay Bhuiyan, the owner of a pathology lab in Kantatoli, and Vinod Kumar, a jewellery shop owner at Church Complex on Ranchi’s Main Road.