The Covid-19 tally in Jharkhand drew close to 70,000 on Saturday after as many as 1,222 people across the state tested positive for the virus in 24 hours, figures released by the state health department stated.

Meanwhile, the Covid tally in Ranchi crossed the 15,000 mark as 284 cases of infection surfaced here, the highest among all districts in Jharkhand, a bulletin released by the National Health Mission (NHM) on Saturday night highlighted.

As per the NHM bulletin, despite a four-digit increase in the number of Covid cases in Jharkhand, the Covid recovery rate in the state touched 80 per cent after 1,274 patients recovered from the infection. Jharkhand’s recovery rate is higher than the national average of 78.60 per cent.

While the count of patients recovering from the infection has been fast increasing in Jharkhand, as many as 615 Covid fatalities have been reported in the state so far.

As many as 10 Covid patients, including two each in Ranchi, East Singhbhum and West Singhbhum, died during treatment on Saturday, government data stated. The Covid mortality rate in Jharkhand was 0.88 per cent on Saturday night, which is lower than the national Covid mortality rate of 1.60 per cent.

East Singhbhum, the district which has reported the highest number of Covid fatalities in the state so far, reported 179 cases of infection on the same day.

However, the count of active cases there reduced as 200 Covid patients recovered from the infection on the same day. By Saturday night, there were nearly 3000 active cases in East Singhbhum and more than 3,000 active cases of infection in Ranchi.

As per government data, there were 13,548 active cases of infection in Jharkhand after Saturday’s test results were out.

The government collected swab samples of 24,756 people and tested 23,042 of them.

So far, health workers across Jharkhand have collected swab samples of 1.68 lakh people and tested 1.67 lakh of them. Out of the 1.67 lakh people tested, 69,860 were found infected.

Government data stated that nearly 75 per cent of the Covid victims in Jharkhand were older than 50 years, while 128 were within the age bracket of 31 to 50 years.

As many as 26 people in the age bracket of 11 to 30 years have died of Covid infection in the state, and three children below the age of 10 years have lost their battle against the virus.