Jharkhand vaccinated nearly 1.80 lakh residents against Covid-19 on Monday, while the active caseload dropped to 79 as Covid recoveries outnumbered fresh cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the state, figures compiled by the health department highlighted.

As per provisional figures released by the National Health Mission (NHM), the state on Monday administered the first dose of vaccine to as many as 1,14,058 residents, taking the total count of such residents who have received at least one dose of the vaccine to above 1.34 crore, which is more than 50 per cent of the total vaccine beneficiaries in the state. The second jab was administered to at least 63,858 beneficiaries.

More than 23,000 residents were vaccinated in Ranchi, the highest among the 24 districts in Jharkhand, while almost 20,000 beneficiaries got vaccinated in East Singhbhum. Dhanbad administered vaccines against Covid-19 to 18,000-odd beneficiaries.

At least five Covid recoveries against four fresh cases of coronavirus infection brought the active caseload of Covid-19 down in the state, a separate bulletin from NHM stated.

Ranchi reported two of the four Covid cases, while Bokaro and Khunti reported one case each. The remaining 20 districts in Jharkhand did not report fresh cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection on Monday.

Jharkhand on Monday tested swab samples of as many as 41,796 residents and 0.01 per cent of them were found infected by the deadly virus.

As per NHM data, the state has so far reported 5,133 Covid casualties but no fresh fatalities were reported in the past fortnight, indicating that the virus was gradually losing its strength in Jharkhand, health officials said.