The vaccination campaign against Covid-19 lost momentum in Jharkhand on Wednesday owing to a shortage of doses. After vaccinating over 1 lakh beneficiaries daily since the arrival of fresh stock of 6 lakh doses on July 2, the state on Wednesday managed to vaccinate only about 60,000 residents, government data revealed.

As per data compiled by the National Health Mission (NHM), the state administered the first dose of vaccine to 38,687 residents on the day, while the second jab was administered to 19,756 beneficiaries. More than 35,000 beneficiaries inoculated on the day were younger than 45 years.

The state had 1,27,570 doses of vaccines in stock after session sites downed their shutters on Wednesday, good to last only one more day, a report from the health department highlighted. However, officials said that fresh supplies may soon reach Jharkhand.

At least nine of 24 Jharkhand districts – West Singhbhum, Pakur, Lohardaga, Khunti, Godda, Giridih, Garhwa, Dhanbad and Chatra – did not report fresh cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday, while 98 Covid recoveries against 75 fresh cases of infection brought the active caseload of Covid-19 in the state down to 532 on the day, figures released by the health department highlighted.

However, East Singhbhum, the second worst-affected district in terms of casualties and caseload, witnessed a spike in the active caseload for the second day in a row as 21 people were found infected by Coronavirus there and 15 patients recovered, a bulletin released by the National Health Mission (NHM) stated. As per the bulletin, at least 64 people were battling the viral infection in the district by the end of Wednesday.

None of the remaining 23 districts reported a double-digit-spike in cases on the day. Ranchi, the district which has reported the highest number of Covid cases so far, reported only five cases against 13 Covid recoveries on the day, which brought the active caseload here down to 72.

The Covid toll remained 5,118 as the state did not report fresh casualties on Wednesday, but the Covid mortality rate in the state remained 1.47 per cent against the national average of 1.30 per cent, government data highlighted.

Jharkhand on Wednesday tested swab samples of 44,510 residents and around 0.16 per cent of them were found infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. So far, over 3.46 state residents have been infected by novel coronavirus and 98.36 per cent of them have recovered.

The doubling rate of Covid-19 reached 4123.74 days on Wednesday against the national average of 721.86 days, government data highlighted. The growth rate of Covid-19 in Jharkhand was 0.02 per cent against the national growth rate of 0.10 per cent on Wednesday.