The active Covid-19 caseload drew close to 800 in Jharkhand and crossed the 400 mark in Ranchi on Monday as the state reported 110 fresh cases against only 69 recoveries, figures compiled by the National Health Mission (NHM) highlighted.

The death toll reached 1,097 on the day as a resident of Deoghar died during treatment, the NHM bulletin stated.

Ranchi reported 46 cases against 41 recoveries and the count of active cases here reached 406, the NHM bulletin stated. Ranchi accounts for more than half of the active cases in Jharkhand and has reported the bulk of fresh cases in March.

Meanwhile, as many as 29,051, including over 20,000 senior citizens and nearly 6,000 middle-agers with comorbid conditions, were administered the first dose of Covishield vaccine in Jharkhand on Monday. The special Panchayat level vaccination drive was not run in the villages on the day, health officials said.

In the past two days, Jharkhand vaccinated over 2.6 lakh people, especially rural residents, as special vaccination camps were set up at different villages of the state. The Panchayat level vaccination drive will resume on Tuesday, health officials said.

While the state has inoculated several thousand senior citizens since the launch of the second phase of the immunisation programme on March 1, it has performed poorly in vaccinating healthcare workers and frontline workers registered for the first and second jabs of the vaccine, reveals government data.

As per a report released by the NHM on Monday, only 2816 healthcare and frontline workers got the first jab of the vaccine on the day, while as many as 5925 got the second jab. The state achieved 8 per cent of its target for the second jab and 47 per cent of its target for the first jab, the NHM report stated.

Since the launch of the immunisation programme, Jharkhand has vaccinated as many as 9,55,846 Jharkhand residents have been administered the first dose of the vaccine and over 4.5 lakh of them were senior citizens, highlights NHM data. Over 1 lakh middle-agers with comorbid conditions have also been inoculated. The second dose has been administered to 2,20,641 of the over 9.5 lakh people who got the first dose of the vaccine.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Monday flagged off a mobile van under the 'Apni Suraksha Apne Haath' campaign, which aims at spreading awareness about hygienic practices and Covid-19 precautions among school students in the state.