Close to 5000 Jharkhand residents, including Health Secretary KK Soan, were found to be infected by the Covid-19 virus on Tuesday, taking the active caseload in the state above 33,000, figures compiled by the National Health Mission (NHM) revealed.

Soan, who had received the first dose of vaccine against Covid-19 on April 13, isolated himself at home after testing positive for the viral infection. Development Commissioner Arun Singh will take charge as the Health Secretary in Soan’s absence, a government notification stated.

Meanwhile, Jharkhand also reported 45 Covid casualties, which took the Covid toll to 1547. Ranchi, the worst-affected district in terms of the active caseload, not only reported the highest number of cases but also the highest count of fatalities on the day. As per NHM data, the district alone accounted for 1703 of the 4969 fresh cases of infection and 15 of the 45 deaths reported in the past 24 hours.

While the active caseload in Ranchi jumped to 12,394 on the day, the number of patients in East Singhbhum drew close to the 5000 mark. As per NHM data, East Singhbhum reported 692 cases and 10 casualties on Tuesday, which took the active caseload there to 4,744 and the Covid toll to 448 – the highest among the 24 districts in Jharkhand.

Government records indicate that Ranchi and East Singhbhum jointly account for more than 50 per cent of the active cases in the state, and more than half of the casualties reported on Tuesday. Among other districts, Dhanbad reported six casualties, while four Covid patients died in Koderma. However, barring East Singhbhum and Ranchi, no other district reported a higher spike than 500.

The Covid recovery rate in the state also dropped below 80 per cent on Tuesday, while the growth rate reached 2.22 per cent against the national average of 1.21 per cent. The national recovery rate of 85.60 per cent was also better than Jharkhand’s 79.84 per cent, highlights government data.

The government on Tuesday tested swab samples of 33839 people and nearly 15 per cent of them were found infected. The state also reported 2334 Covid recoveries on the day, but the fresh cases outnumbered the recoveries by a huge margin.

Meanwhile, Jharkhand administered the first dose of vaccine against Covid-19 to 22,391 people, achieving only 33 per cent of the day’s target. The second dose of the vaccine was administered to 12,656 beneficiaries, around 5 per cent of the over 2.68 lakh registered for the jab.