Covid-19 claimed nine more lives in Jharkhand on Sunday, taking the total number of casualties in the state to 679, figures released by the health department stated.

Nearly 1,000 people across Jharkhand were found infected by the coronavirus on Sunday, taking the tally close to 80,000. As per a bulletin released by the National Health Mission (NHM), at least 226 of the 974 cases that surfaced on Sunday were from East Singhbhum, while 214 were from Ranchi. The number of active cases, however, dropped in East Singhbhum as 303 patients recovered from the infection.

Among the nine Covid patients who died on Sunday, at least four were from East Singhbhum, a district which accounts for 291 of the state’s 679 Covid-19 casualties, government data highlighted. As per government data, Bokaro reported two deaths while Ranchi, Khunti and Hazaribagh reported one death each.

The number of active cases rose above 4,000 on Sunday with new patients outnumbering recoveries for the third consecutive day here. As per government data, as many as 4,016 people were battling the infection in Ranchi on Sunday after only 153 recoveries were reported against 214 new cases during the day.

The government has so far collected the swab samples of 20.71 lakh people in Jharkhand and tested 20.59 lakh of them. Of those tested for the coronavirus, as many as 79,909 were found positive. On Sunday, health workers tested swab samples of 22,342 people and 21,368 of them came negative.

As per government data, Jharkhand has one of the best recovery rates in India. Of the 80,000-odd people found infected in the state so far, at least 66,797 have recovered, taking the recovery rate in the state to 83.59 per cent. The national recovery rate, as per government figures, was 82.40 per cent on Sunday.

Despite the nine casualties reported on Sunday, Jharkhand’s mortality rate was 0.84 per cent, which is lower than the national average of 1.60 per cent. As per government data, the time taken for the number of Covid-19 cases to double in Jharkhand was 42.8 days against the national rate of 47.25 days. In the past seven days, infection grew in Jharkhand at the rate of 1.63 per cent.

As per data compiled by the NHM, at least 502 of the 679 victims in Jharkhand were older than 50 years. As many as 137 patients were in the age bracket of 31 to 50 years, while 31 others were below the age of 30 years.