Jharkhand on Monday vaccinated almost 85,000 residents against Covid-19 as close to 1000 session sites, including at least 960 government-run centres, remained operational across districts, figures released by the state health department highlighted.

As per provisional data released by the National Health Mission (NHM), the state on Monday administered the first dose of vaccine to as many as 64,529 residents, while the second jab was administered to 19,966 beneficiaries. At least 60,000 vaccine beneficiaries inoculated on the day fell in the age bracket of 18 years to 44 years.

According to figures available on the Co-Win portal, at least 37 session sites opened their doors for vaccine beneficiaries in Ranchi on Monday and inoculated close to 7,000 residents, while 43 session sites remained operational in East Singhbhum and vaccinated more than 8,000 residents. In Dhanbad, 16 vaccination centres inoculated close to 2,000 residents.

Till Monday evening, the state had administered the first dose of vaccine to 83,20,232 and the second dose to as many as 19,80,050 beneficiaries.

Another case of Covid-induced mucormycosis surfaced in Ranchi on Monday, taking the total count of confirmed cases of black fungus to 106 in Jharkhand and 42 in Ranchi alone, figures compiled by the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) highlighted. Besides the 106 confirmed cases, the state has also reported 60 suspected cases of black fungus so far and 31 people have died of the fungal infection.

The recovery rate of mucormycosis patients has improved in Jharkhand lately with at least 115 of the 166 patients, including suspected patients, recovering from the fungal infection. However, doctors have warned that any complacency may lead to a rise in cases if the Covid-19 trajectory in the state sees an upward trend.

The active caseload of Covid-19 continued to drop in Jharkhand as 23 patients recovered from the infection while 14 people were found infected on Monday, a bulletin from NHM stated.

At least 17 of 24 districts did not report fresh cases of infection on Monday, while Ranchi reported the highest spike of five cases against six recoveries. At least 51 people were battling the viral infection in Ranchi by the end of Monday. East Singhbhum reported zero Covid cases on the day and two recoveries brought the active caseload there down to 12.