The Covid toll in Jharkhand breached the 4,500-mark on Monday as at least 60 more patients died during treatment in the past 24 hours, figures compiled by the health department highlighted on Monday.

While the death toll continued to rise, the active caseload dropped down to 33,524 on Monday as the state reported 5,463 Covid recoveries against 2,507 fresh cases of infection, a bulletin released by the National Health Mission (NHM) stated.

Ranchi, the worst-affected districts in the state in terms of caseload and casualties, reported the highest number of Covid recoveries on the day. As per the NHM bulletin, as many as 1,617 Covid patients recovered from the infection here on Monday against 292 fresh cases reported during the same period. The active caseload in the district dropped to 6,782. Ranchi, however, reported 10 casualties on the day. The district accounts for 1,421 of the 4,539 Covid deaths that have occurred in the state so far.

East Singhbhum, on the other hand, reported 629 Covid recoveries against 392 cases of infection and the active caseload there dropped to 3,441. As per NHM data, the district reported 12 Covid fatalities on the day, the highest among the 24 districts in Jharkhand. The Covid toll in East Singhbhum jumped to 913 on the day.

On Monday, Jharkhand administered the first dose of vaccine against Covid-19 to as many as 44,348 residents in the age bracket of 18 years to 44 years, taking the total count of those inoculated in this group to 1,53,544, as per government data.

Over 10,000 residents above the age of 45 years were also administered the first jab, while 3,754 people in this age bracket got the second jab on the day. Jharkhand has so far administered the first dose the vaccine to over 30 lakh residents while the second dose has been given to 6.73 lakh beneficiaries, stated a separate report from the NHM.

The growth rate of Covid cases in the state dropped below 1 per cent for the first time this month on Monday. As per government data, the Covid growth rate in Jharkhand was 0.99 per cent against the national average of 0.97 per cent. The doubling rate of cases also improved and reached 70.62 days in Jharkhand against the national average of 72.12 days on Monday.

The state on Monday tested swab samples of 52,887 residents and around 5 per cent of them were found infected. So far, over 3.18 lakh Jharkhand residents have been infected by Coronavirus and more than 88 per cent of them have recovered. While the Covid recovery in the state was better than the national average of 84.80 per cent, the Covid mortality rate in Jharkhand was 1.42 per cent against the national average of 1.10 per cent, highlighted government data.