At least three Jharkhand districts – Pakur, Dumka and Godda – did not report fresh cases of Covid-19 on Saturday, while East Singhbhum reported the highest spike of 28 cases, figures compiled by the National Health Mission (NHM) highlighted.

Two more Covid patients, one each from Hazaribag and Jamtara, died during treatment on Saturday, taking the Covid toll in the state to 5,099, a bulletin released by the NHM stated.

The state reported at least 305 Covid recoveries against 135 fresh cases of infection and the active caseload in Jharkhand dropped to 1,639.

Ranchi, the worst-affected district in terms of caseload and casualties, reported only 10 cases against 50 recoveries, which brought the active caseload in the district down to 506. It is the only Jharkhand district with more than 500 active cases. At least 1,584 residents have died of Covid-19 here so far.

East Singhbhum, the district with the second-highest Covid caseload and fatalities, reported 42 recoveries against 28 fresh cases and the number of active cases there dropped to 185. So far, Covid has claimed 1,032 lives in this district.

Only three districts – Ranchi, Hazaribag and East Singhbhum – reported a double-digit spike in Covid cases on the day, indicating that the infection rate in the state was gradually dipping and lockdown measures were proving to be effective, health officials said.

The state on Saturday tested swab samples of 44,086 residents and less than 0.5 per cent of them were found infected by coronavirus. As per government data, over 3.44 lakh people have battled Covid-19 in the state so far and 98.04 per cent of them have recovered.

The Covid mortality rate in the state, however, continued to be 1.48 per cent, which was higher than the national average of 1.30 per cent. As per NHM data, the growth rate of infection in Jharkhand was 0.04 per cent against the national average of 0.15 per cent, while the doubling rate of cases in the state was 1762.10 days against the national doubling rate of 459.68 days.

As per a separate report shared by the NHM on Saturday, as many as 90,947 residents were administered the first dose of vaccine against Covid-19 on the day and over 66,000 of the beneficiaries belonged to the age bracket of 17 years to 44 years. The second jab was administered to 18,257 state residents and at least 2889 of them were younger than 45 years.