Covid recoveries outnumbered fresh cases of infection in Jharkhand on Sunday, causing a drop in the active caseload, while the state also reported less than 100 Covid fatalities after reporting a triple-digit-spike in the Covid toll every day since the beginning of May, figures shared by the health department highlighted.

As per a bulletin released by the National Health Mission (NHM), as many as 6461 Covid patients recovered from the viral infection on Sunday against 4169 fresh cases reported on the day, bringing the active caseload in Jharkhand down to 58,806.

At least 97 Covid patients, including 43 in Ranchi and 11 in East Singhbhum, died in the past 24 hours, taking the Covid toll in the state to 3853. In the past one week, the state has reported around 130 Covid deaths every day on an average, so Sunday’s findings caused a drop in the average deaths reported daily in the month of May, health officials said.

The active caseload also dropped in Ranchi and East Singhbhum – two of the worst-affected districts. Ranchi reported 779 cases against 1103 recoveries, while East Singhbhum reported 562 cases against 732 recoveries, highlighted the NHM bulletin. By the end of Sunday, the active caseload in Ranchi was down to 19,150 while that in East Singhbhum dropped to 5,691.

The Covid toll, however, continued to witness a steep rise in the two districts. As per government data, Sunday’s developments took the Covid toll in Ranchi to 1216 and that in East Singhbhum to 811. These two districts account for more than 50 per cent of the Covid fatalities reported in Jharkhand so far.

Among other districts, Deoghar reported 280 cases against 179 recoveries, while Ramgarh reported 204 cases against 149 recoveries. At least 192 people were found infected in Bokaro and 240 in West Singhbhum on the day. None of the Jharkhand districts reported more than 1000 fresh cases of infection on the day.

The state on Sunday tested swab samples of 37,644 residents and more than 10 per cent of them were found infected. As per government data, over 2.86 lakh Jharkhand residents have been infected by the deadly virus so far and 78.11 per cent of them have survived.

The growth rate of cases also dropped to 1.88 per cent on the day in Jharkhand against the national average of 1.36 per cent, revealed government data. The Covid growth rate in the state was above 2 per cent since the beginning of this month. The Covid mortality rate in Jharkhand was 1.34 per cent, which is higher than the national average of 1.10 per cent, stated the NHM data.

On Sunday, the government administered the first dose of the vaccine against Covid-19 to 6971 residents while the second dose was administered to 10,683 beneficiaries, highlighted a separate report from NHM.