Covid-19 virus claimed at least five more lives in Jharkhand on Tuesday, taking the total count of Covid casualties in the tribal state to 891, figures compiled by the health department stated.

The spike in Covid fatalities on Tuesday comes after Jharkhand reported one death daily for the past four consecutive days. East Singhbhum and Ranchi, two of the worst affected districts in Jharkhand, reported two deaths each while one death occurred in West Singhbhum, a bulletin released by the National Health Mission (NHM) on Tuesday night stated.

Meanwhile, the trend of recoveries outnumbering fresh cases continued on Tuesday. As many as 397 people were found infected across Jharkhand on the day against 490 recoveries, the NHM bulletin highlighted. Ranchi reported 108 fresh cases of infection, while all the remaining districts reported fewer cases than 100.

The number of active cases of Covid-19 infection dropped in Ranchi after the district reported 156 recoveries. However, the active cases increased in East Singhbhum as the district reported 76 fresh cases against 35 recoveries, government data stated. As per records with the health department, there were 1,632 active cases in Ranchi and 1,346 in East Singhbhum.

Latest data with the health department puts the count of active cases across Jharkhand at 5,021. Ranchi and East Singhbhum account for nearly 60 per cent of the total active cases in Jharkhand, while the remaining 40 per cent of cases are spread across 22 districts.

As per government data, at least 178 people have died of Covid-19 in Ranchi, while 335 people have died of the viral infection in East Singhbhum so far. The figures indicate that nearly 60 per cent of the Covid fatalities in Jharkhand occurred in these two districts. The Covid-19 mortality rate in the state, however, was 0.86 per cent against the national average of 1.50 per cent.

On Tuesday, the health workers tested swab samples of 25,813 people and around 1.5 per cent of them tested positive for Covid-19. The NHM bulletin highlighted that the growth rate of the virus in Jharkhand was 0.26 per cent against the national average of 0.52 per cent. The doubling rate of the virus in the state was 223.6 days against the national doubling rate of 137.7 days.

The government has so far collected swab samples of 34.73 lakh people and tested 34.61 lakh of them. Of the 35-odd lakh people tested, 1,02,887 were found infected. As per figures with NHM, at least 96,975 people have defeated the deadly virus in Jharkhand so far, taking the recovery rate in Jharkhand up at 94.25 per cent against the national average of 92 per cent.