Jharkhand inched closer to 45,000 active cases of coronavirus on Friday with 5741 new infections and 63 deaths reported in the last 24 hours.

The other fallout of daily skyrocketing spikes, coupled with the imposition of a seven-day lockdown in the state two days ago, has been on the immunisation drive, data compiled by the state chapter of National Health Mission has indicated.

Friday came as a respite for the state in terms of new cases and fatalities compared to Thursday but the upward trajectory of the Covid case graph still remains a major concern. With over 5,000 fresh cases, the total active cases in the state has reached 43,415, marginally short of the 45,000 mark but has already surpassed state health department’s estimates of having about 35,000 active cases by end of April.

With 1364 new cases, Ranchi continued to register four- digit spikes. It was followed by East Singbhum with 810 cases, Ramgarh (448), Hazaribag (320), Bokaro (298), Dhanbad (262), Palamau (250), Koderma (228), and Lohardaga (200). As many as six districts reported over 100 cases but less than 200 while seven got double digit hikes. Garhwa however remained the lone exception with no new cases in the last 24 hours.

In terms of deaths, Ranchi and East Singhbhum witnessed 15 each, followed by seven in Koderma. As many as 10 districts reported one death each, five districts got two deaths each and two districts had three deaths each in their regions. The rest four districts remained free of any deaths.

Of the total 1,90,692 positive cases since March last year, 1,45,499 got recovered and 1778 have died so far. State’s seven days growth rate now stands at 2.63 percent, higher than the national average of 1.36 percent. Similarly, seven days doubling rate is 26.65 days, almost half of the country’s current average of 51.22 days. Recovery rate in the state too has fell sharply at 76.30 percent vis-à-vis the national average of 83.90 percent whereas mortality rate of the state is 0.93 percent than that of 1.10 percent in the country.

With experts laying stress on doubling the vaccination efforts in the country to tackle the deadly second wave, lockdown and uncontrolled spread of the virus coupled with the growing fatalities seem to have slowed the pace of vaccination in the state. For, since the imposition of seven-day lockdown in the state on Thursday, the rate of vaccination coverage has fallen drastically, as per the health department’s figures on daily inoculation drive.

On Friday, the state achieved a meager 18 per cent coverage of first dose by inoculating 16,818 people against the target of 95,200. The rate of the second dose was just four percent during this period as only 11,891 were administered the vaccine against the target of 2,68,706. On day one of the lockdown yesterday, against the target of 53,430, the first dose could be given only to 12,439 people which was 23 percent. Similarly, against the target of 2,77,665 people for the second dose, only 8783 were given the jab, which was a mere 2 percent.