Jharkhand on Thursday vaccinated over 1.6 lakh residents against Covid-19, the highest in a day this month, taking the total count of those inoculated in the state closer to the 1 crore mark, provisional figures released by the health department highlighted.

According to National Health Mission (NHM), the state on Thursday administered the first dose of vaccine to 1,23,989 residents, while the second jab was administered to 39,926 beneficiaries. Over 1 lakh residents in the age bracket of 18 years to 44 years got their first dose of the vaccine and close to 18,000 beneficiaries from this age group received their second jab.

NHM data highlighted that the state has over 3.5 lakh vaccine doses in stock to run the immunisation programme for the remaining days of July. As per government data, close to 95 lakh Jharkhand residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Jharkhand witnessed a spike in the active caseload of Covid-19 on Thursday with fresh cases of infection outnumbering recoveries. As per a bulletin from NHM, at least 56 people, including 19 from Garhwa alone, tested positive for Covid-19, while only 34 patients recovered from the viral infection. The active caseload in the state reached 259 on Thursday.

At least seven districts, including Ranchi, saw a spike in the active caseload. As per NHM data, at least 11 cases against six recoveries took the active caseload in Ranchi to 46, while nine cases against four recoveries took the active caseload in Bokaro to 26. Garhwa reported zero recoveries on the day and the number of patients there jumped to 20.

The state, however, did not report fresh Covid casualties on Thursday and the Covid toll remained 5,126. Jharkhand tested samples of 60,755 residents and 0.09 per cent of them were found infected. The state reported an average positivity rate of 0.06 or less in the past one week or so, which increased on Thursday.

The state did not report fresh cases of Covid-induced mucormycosis on Thursday. As per data with Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), at least 104 confirmed and 58 suspected cases of black fungus have been reported in the state so far. The fungal infection has claimed at least 30 lives so far in Jharkhand, IDSP report further highlights.