Jharkhand on Monday reported the highest ever single-day surge in Covid casualties as a dozen patients died within 24 hours, taking the Covid toll in state to 189 while as many as 531 fresh cases of infection were reported taking the patient tally in the state to 18,786.

Five of the 12 deaths were reported from East Singhbhum, a district that has recorded 72 Covid casualties so far, the highest among all districts in Jharkhand, a bulletin released by the National Health Mission (NHM) stated. West Singhbhum and Sahibganj reported two deaths each, while Deoghar and Giridih reported one casualty each.

The virus has so far claimed 31 lives in Ranchi, which means that East Singhbhum and Ranchi account for 103 deaths, nearly 55 per cent of the total number of Covid casualties in the state, government data showed.

While the Covid mortality rate in the state jumped to 1 per cent on Monday, the recovery rate shot above 50 per cent as Jharkhand reported higher number of recoveries than fresh cases for two consecutive days.

On Monday, as many as 531 new cases of infection were reported, while 699 patients recovered, the NHM bulletin highlighted. As per the bulletin, Monday's data takes the Covid tally in the state to 18,786 and the number of active cases to 9,748.

Ranchi, which has been the hotbed of SARS-CoV-2 virus in Jharkhand so far, reported 62 fresh cases on Monday, while 233 patients recovered here. As per government figures, the Covid tally in Jharkhand's worst-affected district rose to 3,634 on Monday.

The tally in East Singhbhum inched towards the 3,000 mark as 67 more people were found infected in the district and only 11 patients recovered. The district's Covid tally was 2,917, the second highest among 24 districts in Jharkhand, till the time this report was filed.

The tally in Dhanbad, which has reported the third highest number of Covid cases in Jharkhand, reached 1,045 on Monday as 14 more people were found infected there. As many as 1,037 cases have been reported in Giridih so far.

The government has collected swab samples of around 3.93 lakh people so far in state and tested 3.87 lakh of them. The number of Covid cases has also skyrocketed in Jharkhand lately, and the government attributed the spike to intensified testing efforts.