The number of active cases in Jharkhand dropped below the 10,000 mark on Wednesday after the state reported over 1000 recoveries against 829 fresh cases of infection surfacing in the past 24 hours, health department data revealed.

After Wednesday’s test results, Jharkhand’s Covid recovery rate jumped to 88.26 per cent, which is higher than the national recovery rate of 85 per cent, a bulletin released by the National Health Mission (NHM) highlighted.

While the number of active cases dropped significantly in the past week, the state has reported around 70 Covid casualties during the same period. As many as 10 more Covid-19 patients died during treatment on Wednesday, taking the toll up to 767.

The number of active cases dropped significantly in Ranchi as well as East Singhbhum, two of the worst-affected districts, on Wednesday. Ranchi reported 502 recoveries against 388 fresh cases of infection, which brought the number of active cases in the district down to 2,995. As many as 132 Covid patients recovered in East Singhbhum against 61 cases of infection, bringing the count of active cases down to 1,620.

As per government data, as many as 9,759 people were still battling the virus across Jharkhand on Wednesday, and around 45 per cent of them were from Ranchi and East Singhbhum. As many as 79,176 people have defeated Covid-19 virus so far.

The government has so far collected swab samples of 25 lakh people and tested around 24.96 lakh of them. On Wednesday, health workers tested swab samples of 23,331 people and 22,502 of them came negative.

The virus has infected at least four members of the Hemant Soren cabinet so far. While health minister Banna Gupta and drinking water and sanitation minister Mithilesh Thakur have recovered from the infection, state education minister Jagarnath Mahto was critical and undergoing treatment at Medica on Wednesday.

Jharkhand’s Covid-19 mortality rate was 0.85 per cent on Wednesday against the national average of 1.50 per cent. The doubling rate of infection was 67.13 days against the national rate of 56.45 days. The growth rate of the virus in Jharkhand in the past one week was 1.01 per cent against the national average of 1.22 per cent.