The Covid-19 tally in Jharkhand drew close to 85,000 on Thursday after as many as 1013 people were found to be infected in a span of 24 hours, figures released by the health department stated.

The number of active cases in the state, however, dropped to 11,482 as Covid recoveries outnumbered the fresh cases for the third consecutive day. As per a bulletin released by the National Health Mission (NHM), as many as 1119 Covid-19 patients recovered from the infection on the day.

Ranchi topped in the number of fresh cases of infection as well as the number of Covid recoveries on Thursday. As many as 448 Covid-19 patients recovered from the infection on the day against 266 cases of infection surfacing during the same period.

The number of active cases, however, increased in East Singhbhum after 165 fresh cases surfaced in the district against only 40 Covid recoveries. As per government data, there were 2323 active cases of the infection in East Singhbhum and 3336 active cases in Ranchi on Thursday night.

The Covid toll in Jharkhand also jumped to 721 on Thursday after nine patients, including three from Ranchi, died during treatment. As per government data, East Singhbhum, Hazaribag, Dhanbad, Deoghar and Bokaro reported one Covid death each. East Singhbhum has reported 301 Covid deaths so far, while Ranchi has reported 119 Covid casualties.

Jharkhand’s Covid recovery rate further improved and reached 85.58 per cent on Thursday against the national average of 83.50 per cent. Out of the 84,664 Covid patients found in the state so far, at least 72,461 have recovered, highlights government data.

Despite reporting over 700 Covid casualties, Jharkhand’s Covid mortality rate was 0.85 per cent against the national average of 1.60 per cent. As per the data, at least 538 of the 721 Covid victims in Jharkhand were older than 50 years. At least 143 victims were in the age bracket of 31 to 50 years, while 31 deceased were below the age of 30 years.

The state government has so far collected swab samples of 22.95 lakh people and tested 22.86 lakh of them. On Thursday, health workers collected swab samples of 25,537 people and tested 24,758 of them. The doubling rate of Covid infection in Jharkhand was 45.21 days against the national average of 49.99 days. The growth rate of the virus in Jharkhand in the past one week was 1.49 per cent against the national average of 1.36 per cent.