As many as four MLAs tested Covid positive, the state health department noted in a bulletin issued on Monday night that saw 3,218 new cases, the highest single-day addition so far, and seven deaths.
Notably, in the last 24 hours, 1,54,667 samples were tested, of which 3,218 were found positive after which state’s total caseload stood at 41,656. With the steady rise in Covid-19 cases, Jharkhand’s seven-day growth rate of cases touched 4.25 per cent, double the national average of 2.21 per cent.
As of Monday night, the total number of active cases in Jharkhand is 14,096. As many as 27,143 people have recovered while 417 have died.
The four MLAs who tested positive are Neelkant Singh Munda (BJP, Khunti), Sashi Bhushan Mehta (BJP, Panki), Amba Prasad (Congress, Barkagaon) and Vinod Singh (CPI-ML, Bagodar). They are all on home isolation, officials said. In all, nine MLAs of the state have tested positive.
East Singhbhum continued to report the highest number of cases with 630 on Monday night, followed by Koderma with 254, Ranchi and Seraikela with 227 each, West Singbhum 210, Hazaribagh 170, Ramgarh 162, Dhanbad 153, Gumla 147, Palamu 127, Sahebganj 127 and Chatra 103.
Health officials apprehend a further rise in the number cases with special testing drives underway across the state. On Tuesday, Ranchi is scheduled to hold a special testing camp across 20 locations from 10am to 6pm. The aim is to test at least over 10,000 people in a single day, officials said.
On August 18, Ranchi held a similar drive in which over 300 Covid cases were recorded.
As per government records, Ranchi has the highest number of active cases, while East Singhbhum has the second highest number of patients who are yet to recover from the infection. As many as 2,566 people were undergoing treatment for the viral infection in East Singhbhum at the time of filing this report, while 2,789 patients were yet to recover from the virus in Ranchi.
At least 695 people recovered from the infection on Monday and were subsequently discharged from hospital, taking the number of Covid recoveries in Jharkhand to 27,143, a bulletin released by the National Health Mission (NHM) stated.
As per the NHM bulletin released on Monday late night, Jharkhand’s Covid recovery rate was 65.15 per cent against the national average of 75.27 per cent. The fatality rate in the state was 1 percent, which the lower than the national Covid fatality rate of 1.85 per cent.