The Covid-19 tally in Jharkhand crossed the 80,000 mark on Monday after over 1500 people were found to be infected across the state, figures released by the health department stated.

Despite the spike in cases, Ranchi’s recovery rate improved significantly on Monday after at least 696 patients recovered from the infection here against 286 fresh cases of infection. As per government data, Jharkhand reported 1806 recoveries on the day, and Ranchi accounted for nearly 40 per cent of the recoveries.

The number of active cases, however, shot up in East Singhbhum, which reported 301 cases of infection on Monday against only 157 recoveries. After Monday’s findings, the number of active cases in Ranchi stood at 3,605. As many as 2,180 patients were battling the infection in East Singhbhum. There were 12,126 active cases of infection in Jharkhand by Monday night.

Meanwhile, the Covid toll in East Singhbhum drew close to 300 on Monday after the district reported four of the nine Covid casualties occurring in Jharkhand. This district alone accounts for 295 of the 688 Covid fatalities reported in Jharkhand till now. Jharkhand’s Covid mortality rate, as per government figures, was 0.84 per cent against the national average of 1.60 per cent.

The government in Jharkhand has so far collected swab samples of 21.63 lakh people and tested 21.53 lakh of them. On Monday, health workers tested swab samples of 82,743 people and 1508 of them came positive for Covid-19, stated a bulletin released by the National Health Mission (NHM) on Monday night.

As per government data, as many as 68,603 of the 81,417 people infected by Covid-19 virus in Jharkhand have recovered, taking the Covid recovery rate in the state to 84.26 per cent. Jharkhand’s Covid recovery rate is better than the national average of 82.60 per cent.

Special Covid testing drive in Ranchi

The Ranchi district administration conducted a special Covid testing drive at 25 locations across the district on Monday and collected swab samples of 3,381 people from the various locations. As many as 3306 of the samples were tested on Monday and 76 of them came positive. A majority of the samples were collected from rural areas such as Angada, Kanke, Bero and Namkum.

Rs.550 for Rapid Antigen Test

The state health department on Monday put a cap of Rs.550 on Rapid Antigen Tests conducted by private laboratories and diagnostic centres across Jharkhand for detecting Covid-19 infection. A notification from the health department on Monday stated that private labs found guilty of charging exorbitant price for RAT tests will be booked under the provisions of the State Epidemic Disease (Covid-19) regulation, 2020.