Jharkhand reported as many as 124 Covid deaths on Monday, breaking all past records of casualties reported in a single day since the pandemic hit the tribal state back in March 2020, figures compiled by the National Health Mission (NHM) revealed. The Covid toll in the state also breached the 2000-mark on the day, NHM data further highlighted.

Ranchi accounted for 52 of the 124 Covid fatalities on the day, which took the toll in the district to 641, stated a bulletin released by the NHM. At least 14 patients died in East Singhbhum, which has reported the second highest number of Covid casualties so far, taking the toll in the district to 534. As per government data, as many as 2115 people have died of Covid infection in the state so far, and more than half of them were residents of Ranchi and East Singhbhum.

While the state reported more than 100 deaths for the third consecutive day on Monday, the active caseload also reached close to the 50,000 mark as at least 5541 people were found infected and 4018 patients recovered on the day.

With 1686 fresh cases against 836 recoveries, the active caseload in Ranchi jumped to 16,307. On the other hand, the active caseload in East Singhbhum dropped to 5,952 as the district reported 934 recoveries against 604 fresh cases on Monday. Among other districts, Dhanbad reported at least 400 fresh cases, while 313 people were found infected in Bokaro. As many as 49,504 Jharkhand residents were battling the viral infection by the end of Monday, the bulletin released by the NHM highlighted.

As per government data, more than 2.07 lakh people have been infected by the mysterious virus in Jharkhand so far and 75.09 per cent of them have recovered. The government on Monday tested swab samples of 35,895 people and more than 15 per cent of them were found infected by Covid-19.

Meanwhile, the growth rate of Covid infection further rose to 2.74 per cent against the national average of 1.48 per cent on Monday, while the doubling rate in the state dropped to 23.56 days against the national average of 46.71 days. The state’s Covid growth rate was 0.10 per cent, while the doubling rate was over 2500 days in the month of March.

Jharkhand administered the first dose of vaccine against Covid-19 to 15,155 residents on the day, achieving 18 per cent of the target. The second dose was administered to 10775 people, hardly 3 per cent of the registered beneficiaries.