While the active caseload of Covid-19 dropped close to 4500 in Jharkhand on Thursday, at least five more Covid casualties took the toll in the state to 5081, figures compiled by the state health department highlighted.
As per a bulletin released by the National Health Mission (NHM), at least 293 people were found infected by novel coronavirus in the state on Thursday, while 557 Covid patients recovered, bringing the active caseload down to 4514.
Barring East Singhbhum, which reported a spike of 67 cases, none of the remaining 23 districts reported a spike of more than 50 on the day. However, recoveries outnumbered fresh cases in East Singhbhum as well and the active caseload there dropped to 770, the NHM stated in its bulletin. The district reported 92 Covid recoveries and one Covid death on the day.
At least 68 Covid recoveries against 30 fresh cases of infection brought the active caseload in Ranchi further down to 1329. One patient died during treatment in the capital, taking the toll here to 1579. Despite recoveries outnumbering fresh cases of infection every day in Ranchi, the district still accounted for more than 30 per cent of the active cases in the state.
The state tested swab samples of 44,591 residents on Thursday and around 0.5 per cent of them were found infected. Jharkhand has been reported a positivity rate of less than 1 per cent in the past one week, health officials said, indicating that the second wave of the pandemic was on the decline in the tribal state.
Among other districts, Bokaro reported a spike of 10 cases against nine recoveries, while Chatra reported 22 cases and zero recoveries on Thursday. At least 17 people were found infected in Dhanbad while 55 patients recovered there. Dhanbad, West Singhbhum, East Singhbhum, Ranchi and Pakur reported one Covid death each on the day.
Hazaribag reported 22 cases against 38 recoveries, while 15 people were found infected in Gumla and 41 patients recovered there. Barring Ranchi, the active caseload was below 1000 in all the remaining 23 districts in Jharkhand.
The growth rate of Covid-19 also dropped to 0.10 per cent in Jharkhand against the national average of 0.24 per cent on Thursday, while the doubling rate in the state reached 700.50 days against the national doubling rate of 287.58 days, highlighted government data.
As per NHM data, over 3.42 lakh people have been infected by Coronavirus in the state so far and 97.20 per cent of them have recovered. However, the Covid mortality rate in the state was 1.48 per cent, which is higher than the national average of 1.20 per cent.
The state on Thursday administered the first dose of vaccine against Covid-19 to as many as 61,957 residents, including 45,441 in the age bracket of 18 years to 44 years. The second jab was administered to 3944 beneficiaries on the day.
