The Covid toll in Ranchi reached 200 on Thursday as at least six more patients, including three from the State capital, died of the lethal infection in 24 hours, taking the total count of Covid casualties in Jharkhand up at 977, figures compiled by the health department highlighted.

While Covid fatalities continued to haunt Jharkhand on the day, the fresh cases of Covid-19 infection also outnumbered the recoveries, causing a marginal rise in the count of active cases of infection. As per government data, as many as 1926 people were battling the viral infection across the state on Thursday.

As per a bulletin released by the National Health Mission (NHM), as many as 233 people, including 85 from Ranchi alone, were found infected on the day. On the other hand, at least 208 Covid patients recovered from the infection, but the number of active cases shot up in Ranchi as only 41 patients recovered here.

There were 751 active cases of Covid-19 infection in Ranchi on Thursday, the highest among all the 24 districts in Jharkhand. At least 297 people were undergoing treatment for the infection in East Singhbhum, which has the second-highest Covid tally in the state.

While Ranchi reported three deaths, East Singhbhum, Hazaribag and Bokaro reported one Covid casualty each, taking the Covid mortality rate in Jharkhand up at 0.89 per cent on Thursday.

Gumla did not report even a single case of Covid-19 infection on the day, but Ranchi, East SInghbhum, Dhanbad, Bokaro, Ramgarh and Hazaribag reported a double-digit-spike in the Covid caseload. Dhanbad reported 28 cases against 24 recoveries, while Bokaro reported 11 cases against 13 recoveries. At least 16 people were found infected in Hazaribag and 10 people were found infected in Ramgarh.

The government on Thursday tested swab samples of 22,786 people and more than 1 per cent of them were found infected. So far, health workers have collected swab samples of 42.83 lakh people and tested 42.65 lakh of them. Of the over 42 lakh people tested, as many as 1,09,771 were found infected and at least 1,06,868 of the infected people have recovered, states government data.

As per the NHM bulletin released on Thursday, the growth rate of Covid-19 in Jharkhand was 0.16 per cent against the national average of 0.34 per cent. The doubling rate of the virus in the state was 443.64 days against the national average of 204.43 days. The recovery rate in Jharkhand was higher than the national recovery rate of 94.10 per cent. The state’s recovery rate on Thursday was 97.35 per cent.