Nearly 1,500 people tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday in Jharkhand, taking the tally in the state to above 70,000, according to figures released by the health department.

As per the government data, while 1,492 cases of infection surfaced across Jharkhand on Sunday, the state did not report even a single casualty due to the coronavirus during the day. However, as many as 13,791 people were still battling the infection by the time this report was filed late on Sunday.

At least 617 people have died of the infection in the state so far, and East Singhbhum accounts for 268 of them, the government data showed. The mortality rate in the state stood at 0.86 per cent against the national average of 1.60 per cent.

Ranchi reported nearly 500 cases of infection on Sunday, while only 128 Covid-19 patients recovered here, taking the count of active cases in the district close to 3,500. As per a bulletin released by the National Health Mission (NHM), there were 3,474 active cases of infection in Ranchi after 468 people were found infected in 24 hours.

The number of active cases reduced in East Singhbhum after 371 patients recovered against the 129 fresh cases surfacing in 24 hours. However, there were over 2,500 active cases in the district despite the healthy recovery rate. As per the NHM bulletin, 2,563 people were battling the virus in the district.

As many as 1,235 patients recovered from the infection on Sunday, taking the total count of recoveries in the state to 56,944 and the recovery rate to 79.80 per cent, data with the health department stated.

The government has so far collected swab samples of 1.77 lakh people and tested 1.76 lakh of them. Of those tested, 71,352 were found positive. On Sunday, health workers tested swab samples of 81,169 people and 79,677 of them were found to be Covid-19 negative.

As per figures with the health department, nearly 75 per cent of the 600-odd Covid-19 victims in Jharkhand were older than 50 years, and a majority of them were already suffering from comorbid health conditions when they got infected by the coronavirus. The virus has also killed as many as 129 people in the 31-50 years age bracket, and many of the victims did not have a severe comorbid condition, health officials said.