Over 960 people in Jharkhand tested positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday, taking the tally in state to 26,300, while the toll jumped to 278 as nine more patients died of the viral infection, figures released by the health department stated.

As many as 150 cases of the virus surfaced in Ranchi in 24 hours, taking the total count of cases in the districts to 5,209, the highest among all the 24 districts in Jharkhand, a bulletin released by the National Health Mission (NHM) on Wednesday late evening highlighted. The bulletin further stated that at least six people died of Covid in East Singhbhum, the district that has reported the highest number of Covid fatalities in state so far. The tally in the district was 4458, the second highest in state, while the toll in the district was 112 by the time this report was filed.

As per government data, Ranchi, East Singhbhum and Dhanbad account for more than 40 per cent of Covid cases in Jharkhand. However, only eight people were found to be infected in Dhanbad on Wednesday, taking the Covid tally in the district to 1818.

While the number of Covid cases witnessed a nearly four-digit spike, as many as 857 patients recovered from the infection on Wednesday, taking the Covid recovery rate in state to 62.98 per cent. However, the recovery rate in Jharkhand was still lower than the national average of 73.01 per cent, the NHM bulletin said.

The virus has infected several policemen, politicians and prisoners in Jharkhand. The count of infected prisoners at the Birsa Munda Central Jail also jumped to 129 as 24 more prison inmates were found to be positive on Tuesday. Meanwhile, at least seven cabinet ministers, including chief minister Hemant Soren, have come under Covid scanner after health minister Banna Gupta tested positive for the virus. As per figures with the police headquarters, at least 100 policemen have been infected by Novel Coronavirus so far in state.

The government has so far collected swab samples of around 5.24 lakh people and tested 5.16 lakh of them. On Wednesday, swab samples of as many as 12,282 people were collected for Covid test across Jharkhand, and 11315 of them were tested, data shared by the health department stated. As many as 967 of the 11,000-odd people were found to be positive.