The count of senior citizens vaccinated against coronavirus crossed the 1 lakh mark in Jharkhand on Sunday as 8,450 senior citizens got the first jab on the day, taking the total number of vaccinated senior citizens in the state to 1,02,268, data compiled by the National Health Mission (NHM) highlighted. These senior citizens will have to get the second dose of the vaccine starting March 28.

While senior citizens in the state have shown a positive response to the vaccine, Jharkhand is facing a tough time trying to achieve its target for vaccination of healthcare and frontline workers. For the past three days, Jharkhand failed to achieve more than 10 per cent of its target for administering the first dose of the Covishield vaccine to healthcare and frontline workers. Even on Sunday, the state only managed to administer the first dose of the vaccine to only 5 per cent of registered healthcare and frontline workers, revealed the government data.

As many as 1,478 healthcare and frontline workers and 1,178 middle-agers with comorbid conditions were administered the first dose of the vaccine in Jharkhand on Sunday. The second dose was administered to only 4697 beneficiaries, hardly 6 per cent of the total number of beneficiaries registered for vaccination.

Senior citizens in Ranchi, Giridih and Pakur have been prompt in getting vaccinated. As per the government data, as many as 12,565 senior citizens got the first jab in Ranchi – the highest among the 24 districts in Jharkhand. Pakur and Giridih have vaccinated more than 10,000 senior citizens each.

So far, as many as 4,76,367 people have been administered the first dose of the vaccine in Jharkhand, while 1,46,664 have received the second jab of the vaccine as well. As many as 18,451 middle-agers with comorbid conditions have got the first jab so far.

Meanwhile, active cases of Covid-19 infection jumped to 548 on Sunday as the state reported 61 fresh cases against only 28 recoveries, a bulletin released by the NHM stated. Ranchi reported 36 cases against 14 recoveries, and the count of active cases here rose to 329, which is more than 60 per cent of the total active cases in Jharkhand, the bulletin further stated.

So far, Jharkhand has reported over 1.2 lakh cases of Covid-19 infection and more than 98 per cent of the patients have recovered. The state did not report any Covid casualty on the day. As many as 1,093 people have died of Covid-19 infection in Jharkhand so far, reveals government data.