Jharkhand on Saturday launched five mobile RT-PCR testing laboratories to intensify Covid-19 testing across five highly populated and Covid-affected districts as a part of its “five-pronged strategy for containment of Covid-19”, which aims at testing, tracking, isolating, treating and vaccinating residents.

With the launch of these mobile vans, Jharkhand became the fourth Indian state to use mobile RT-PCR testing laboratories. So far, such labs were being used in Maharashtra, New Delhi and Karnataka, health officials said.

On the basis of the current positivity rate of infection and population density, the state has launched the mobile RT-PCR lab facility in Ranchi, East Singhbhum, Dhanbad, Palamu and Hazaribag.

“Each mobile lab will conduct at least 1,000 Covid tests every day,” said state health secretary Arun Kumar Singh.

As per records with the health department, Jharkhand has so far conducted 37,42,193 RT-PCR tests, 15,15,264 TrueNat tests and 53,27,502 rapid antigen tests. On Saturday, the state tested swab samples of 60,579 residents and 61 of them were found to be Covid positive, highlighted government data.

The state on Saturday reported 64 Covid recoveries against the 61 fresh cases of infection and the active caseload dropped to 337, the National Health Mission (NHM) stated in its daily Covid-19 bulletin. However, the active caseload jumped to 55 in Ranchi as the district reported 17 fresh Covid cases against only six recoveries on the day.

At least nine districts – Simdega, Saraikela, Sahebganj, Palamu, Pakur, Khunti, Godda, Giridih and Garhwa – did not report fresh cases of Covid-19 on the day. Ranchi was the only district to report a double-digit-spike on Saturday. The state did not report fresh Covid casualties on the day and the toll remained 5120.

As per government data, over 3.46 lakh people have been infeccted in Jharkhand and 98.42 per cent of them have recovered while 1.47 per cent of patients have died. The growth rate of Covid-19 in Jharkhand was 0.01 per cent against the national average of 0.09 per cent, while the doubling rate in the state was over 5000 days against the national average of close to 800 days.

The state on Saturday vaccinated almost 70,000 residents against Covid-19, taking the total count of vaccinated residents above 82 lakh, a report released by the National Health Mission (NHM) stated. At least 57,579 residents were administered the first dose of vaccine, while 21,654 got the second jab on the day. Around 48,000 residents below the age of 45 years were inoculated on Saturday in Jharkhand.

The state did not report fresh mucormycosis cases on the day. So far, Jharkhand has reported 100 confirmed and 58 suspected cases of the fungal infection. While 92 patients have recovered from the lethal disease, at least 30 patients could not survive.