Recovered Covid-19 patients outnumbered newly infected ones in Jharkhand for the eighth consecutive day on Saturday.

As a result, the number of active cases in the state that stood at 33,089 on January 15 came down to 21,628 on Saturday as shown in the data released by the state health department.

Even the positivity rate that was 5.71 per cent on January 15 dropped to 2.48 per cent on Saturday.

The recovery rate that was poor at 90.38 per cent compared to national rate of 95.20 per cent on January 15 also improved to 93.58 per cent that was slightly better than the national rate of 93.30 per cent.

Though 61 patients died during the period, mortality rate also showed marginal improvement from 1.30 per cent to 1.25 per cent on Saturday.

The official data also revealed that only 505 or 2.12 per cent of the total 23,770 active patients of the state were symptomatic on Friday of whom 192 needed oxygen support and 34 required intensive care, while just 4 had to be put on ventilators.

“It’s a good sign that the recovery rate improved and patients are recovering fast,” said state epidemiologist Dr Praveen Kumar Karn, adding people have grown good immunity that the infection rate also dropped considerably.

But people should follow Covid appropriate behaviour so that further spread of the disease could be checked, he opined.

Of the estimated 2.41 crore adult population of the state, 83 per cent were administered the first dose while 52 per cent got fully vaccinated till date, the health department data informed.