The count of Covid-19 recoveries in Jharkhand has surpassed the number of active cases here, something that could reduce fear and panic related to the virus among residents, health officials said.

According to health department sources and the National Health Mission (NHM) on Monday, as many as 905 Covid-19-infected patients have recovered and subsequently been discharged from hospitals across the state. The number of active cases of infection in the state is 850.

As many as 1,763 cases of Covid-19 infection have been reported in Jharkhand since the entry of the virus in the state, as per figures collected by the health department. At least 172 of these cases were reported from Ranchi and 248 from East Singhbhum – the highest among the 24 districts in Jharkhand, health department's data said.

Jharkhand has a Covid-19 recovery rate of 51.39 per cent, which is higher than the national average of 50.59 per cent, officials from NHM said. The mortality rate, however, is much lower in Jharkhand compared to the rest of India. The mortality rate for Covid-19 here is 0.45 per cent against the national rate of 2.86 per cent, NHM said in its bulletin.

Dr Prabhat Kumar, in-charge of Jharkhand's Covid-19 task force, said, “The figures show that Covid patients are responding to medical attention and recovering. But we still have a long way to go.”

Ranchi, which was the first red zone in Jharkhand, has witnessed highest number of Covid-19 recoveries. As many as 131 patients here have recovered so far while only 42 people continued to undergo treatment in the district as per figures released by the health department on Monday afternoon.

The state government has so far collected samples of 10,7,540 Covid-19 suspects from across the state, and more than 1,700 of them have tested positive. At least 10,4,343 people have been tested so far, the NHM bulletin said.