Jharkhand on Thursday reported over twice as many recoveries compared to fresh cases of Covid-19, but could not put a check on the growing number of casualties, four of which occurred from Wednesday midnight to Thursday evening, government data highlighted.

At least 606 Covid-19 patients recovered from the infection in 24 hours against 269 fresh cases surfacing across the state, a bulletin released by the National Health Mission (NHM) stated. Ranchi on Thursday reported 65 fresh cases of infection against 108 recoveries, while East Singhbhum reported 265 recoveries against only 49 fresh cases.

As per latest government data, at least 18 districts in Jharkhand had less than 100 active cases of Covid-19 infection on Thursday evening. However, despite the fall in the number of active cases and a rise in the recovery rate, number of Covid-19 casualties in the tribal state is on the rise.

The four deaths reported on Thursday took the Covid-19 toll in the state to 917. Latehar, Ranchi, Chatra and Palamu reported one Covid casualty each on the day, the NHM bulletin stated.

The government on Thursday tested swab samples of 22,126 people and around 1 per cent of them were found infected. Health workers in Jharkhand have so far collected swab samples of 37.56 lakh people and tested 37.38 lakh of them.

At least 16 of the 24 districts in the state reported a single-digit-spike in Covid-19 cases, while two districts, Jamtara and Dumka, did not report even a single case of infection on Thursday. The number of active cases in East Singhbhum as well as in Ranchi dropped close to 1000 after Thursday’s findings.

Of the over 37 lakh people tested so far, as many as 1,05,493 were found to be Covid positive. However, at least 1,00,908 Covid patients have recovered from the infection in Jharkhand so far, bringing the number of active cases down at 3,668 and the recovery rate up at 95.65 per cent. Jharkhand’s Covid-19 recovery rate was higher than the national average of 92.90 per cent, highlighted government data.

As per government data, the growth rate of the viral infection in Jharkhand was 0.22 per cent against the national average of 0.45 per cent. The doubling rate of Covid-19 virus in Jharkhand was 318.68 days against the national average of 152.74 days. The mortality rate in Jharkhand, however, increased marginally on Thursday and reached 0.86 per cent against the national average of 1.50 per cent.