Ranchi, the district with the highest number of Covid-19 cases in Jharkhand, also has the poorest Covid recovery rate among all 24 districts in the state, figures compiled by the National Health Mission (NHM) reveal.

The capital district, as per figures with the health department, reported 17,985 Covid-19 cases by Monday afternoon, and 13,865 of these have patients recovered. Based on these numbers, the Covid recovery rate of Ranchi was 77.09 per cent on Monday against the state’s Covid recovery rate of 83.59 per cent.

Ranchi also had the highest number of active cases of coronavirus infection among districts in Jharkhand. As per government data, as many as 4,016 people in the district were still battling the infection. Interestingly, East Singhbhum, the district with the second highest number of cases, had only 2,040 active cases, which was almost half of the figure in Ranchi.

Jharkhand’s first Covid-19 case was reported from Ranchi’s Hindpiri locality on March 31. Since then, Ranchi has continued to report the lion’s share of Covid cases in the state. Ranchi has also reported 105 Covid casualties so far, which is the second highest among all districts in the state.

Health experts are of the opinion that the virus could be spreading faster in Ranchi due to frequent visits by travelers from other states, and more people attending social gatherings in the urban clusters of the district. The Birsa Munda Airport in Ranchi is the only operational airport in Jharkhand, and around a dozen flights land here every day.

“We all know that the virus spreads faster in urban areas. It is primarily due to urban lifestyle and population density that people are at a higher risk of infection in cities,” said state coordinator of Indian Medical Association Dr Ajay Kumar Singh.

East Singhbhum, the district with second highest cases of infection in Jharkhand, registered a Covid recovery rate of 82.94 per cent. Despite reporting 291 Covid casualties, the rate of recovery in this district was better than that in Ranchi. The district reported 13,643 cases so far and 11,316 recoveries.

Among other densely populated districts, Dhanbad reported a Covid recovery rate of 83.21 per cent, while Bokaro registered a recovery rate of 85.01 per cent. Giridih district, which saw a little more than 3,000 cases, had a recovery rate of 91.87 per cent. Ramgarh, too, had a Covid recovery rate of above 91 per cent. The government did not release the district-wise rate of recovery in its bulletin. The figures were calculated on the basis of the total number of cases and recoveries provided by the government.

As per latest figures with the government, as many as 79,909 Covid-19 cases had surfaced in Jharkhand until Monday afternoon. Of these, 66,797 had been cured.