Cyclone Yaas adversely impacted Jharkhand's efforts to tackle the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic on Thursday, causing a drop in the number of people vaccinated against, and tested for, the coronavirus in the state, health officials said.
As many as 29,155 residents were tested for Covid-19 on Thursday against the average daily testing of over 50,000 people before the cyclone. As per government data, only 13,119 residents received the first jab of the vaccine against Covid-19, which is less than half of the average vaccination done every day earlier this week.
“The cyclonic weather affected immunisation and Covid testing across Jharkhand on the day. But eight districts, including East Singhbhum, West Singhbhum, Lohardaga, Latehar and Khunti, were worst-affected,” said Dr Siddharth Triapthi, the nodal officer of the health department’s IEC wing.
Covid recoveries outnumbered fresh cases of infection in Jharkhand on Thursday, bringing the active caseload in the state down to 13,097, while 16 deaths took the Covid toll to 4,926, figures compiled by the National Health Mission (NHM) highlighted.
As per a bulletin released by NHM, the state reported 1,778 Covid recoveries against 695 fresh cases on Thursday. None of the districts reported a triple-digit-spike on Thursday. Ranchi reported 89 cases – the highest among Jharkhand districts.
At least 275 patients recovered from the viral infection in Ranchi, bringing the active caseload here down to 3,354. The district also reported five casualties, which took the Covid toll here to 1,527. East Singhbhum, on the other hand, reported three casualties and 67 cases on the day. The active caseload dropped to 980 as at least 200 Covid patients recovered from the infection in the district.
Among other districts, Dhanbad reported 76 cases and two deaths against 169 recoveries, while 32 people were found infected in Bokaro and 100 patients recovered there. Hazaribag reported 42 cases against 137 recoveries, while Pakur did not report fresh cases of infection on the day.
As per government data, the growth rate of infection in Jharkhand dropped to 0.33 per cent against the national average of 0.58 per cent on the day, while the doubling rate in the state reached 208.62 days against the national average of 120.40 days.
So far, over 3.34 lakh people have been infected by Coronavirus in Jharkhand and 94.61 per cent of them have recovered. The Covid recovery rate in India was 90 per cent on Thursday. The mortality rate, however, was 1.46 per cent in the state against the national average of 1.20 per cent.
