A 50-year-old sub-inspector-ranked officer of Jharkhand Armed Police (JAP) became the first victim of Covid-19 in the police department that has already seen more than 200 cases in Jharkhand with 103 in Ranchi alone, officials said on Sunday.

“The SI, who lost his battle against Covid-19 on Sunday, is the only Covid casualty reported in our department so far,” said Ranchi SSP S.K. Jha. “At least 103 cops have been infected in Ranchi till date,” he added.

The count of Covid-19 cases in Jharkhand crossed the 8,000 mark on Sunday as 457 fresh cases surfaced in state, government data stated. The Covid toll also jumped to 85 as two more patients died of the infection in the past 24 hours, health officials said.

As per government data, there are 4,560 active cases of coronavirus infection in Jharkhand and at least 1100 of them are in Ranchi – the worst-affected district in Jharkhand. Fresh cases were reported from all 24 districts on Sunday, and Ranchi, one again, reported the highest number of fresh cases among all the districts.

As many as 183 patients recovered from the infection on Sunday, but the state's Covid recovery rate remained below 45 per cent. Jharkhand's recovery rate, as per a bulletin released by National Health Mission (NHM), is 44.36 per cent against the national average of 63.92 per cent.

Covid mortality rate in Jharkhand on Sunday was 1.02 per cent, which is much lower than the national average of 2.31 per cent, the NHM bulletin stated.

The government has so far collected samples of 2.7 lakh people for Covid tests and tested around 2.6 lakh of them. The total count of Covid cases, as per government data, on Sunday stood at 8,349.

Dhanbad collectorate closed

The Dhanbad district collectorate and the office of the sub-divisional magistrate Raj Maheshwaram were closed till July 28 after an employee tested positive on Sunday. Dhanbad deputy commissioner Uma Shankar Singh instructed the executive officer of Dhanbad Municipal Corporation, Md Anis, to ensure both the offices were sanitised. Till the, some key officials of the collectorate would work out of the Dhanbad Circuit House.

Sindri market shut

Sindri Chamber of Commerce has closed the Saharpura Market for the next four days after a garment shop owner and his son tested positive on Saturday. Both were admitted to the Dedicated Covid Hospital of Dhanbad on Sunday.