The Covid tally in Jharkhand drew close to 38,000 on Saturday as 1,299 people were found infected in 24 hours, taking the number of active cases to 11,498, figures released by the health department stated.

Accordong to a National Health Mission (NHM) bulletin released at 10.45pm on Saturday, as many as 257 people tested positive for the coronavirus in Ranchi while 233 people were found infected in East Singhbhum – the two worst-affected districts in the state.

There were 3,138 active cases of infection in Ranchi and 2,366 patients in East Singhbhum by the time this report was filed. As many as eight Covid patients, including three in East Singhbhum, died during treatment in the past 24 hours, taking the Covid toll in Jharkhand to 398, government figures highlighted.

Ranchi alone accounts for 7,257 of the 40,000-odd Covid cases in Jharkhand so far, while East Singhbhum has reported 176 of the 398 deaths in state, officials from the health department said on Saturday, raising concern over the Covid situation in the two districts.

While the state witnessed a four-digit spike in the Covid cases on Saturday, as many as 968 patients recovered from the infection and were subsequently discharged from hospital, government data stated. So far, 25,216 Covid patients have recovered from the infection in Jharkhand and 11,498 were still undergoing treatment.

With nearly 3,000 Covid-19 cases, Dhanbad is the third worst-affected district in Jharkhand. All the remaining 21 districts in the state have reported less than 2,000 cases of infection.

On Saturday too, only Ranchi and East Singhbhum reported a triple-digit spike in Covid cases, while all other districts registered fewer cases than 100, the NHM bulletin stated.

The government so far has collected swab samples of 7.44 lakh people and tested 7.30 lakh of them. On Saturday, health workers tested swab samples of 19,993 people and 18,694 of them came negative. The Covid testing rate has improved in Jharkhand since July, with the government testing at least 15,000 people every day on an average.

The Covid recovery rate in state on Saturday was 67.94 per cent, which is lower than the national average of 75.27 per cent. The Covid mortality rate in Jharkhand was 1.07 per cent against the national average of 1.85 per cent, said government data.