At least three more Jharkhand residents died of Covid-induced mucormycosis on Monday, taking the black fungus toll in the state to 29, while three more confirmed cases of the fungal infection took the tally to 98, figures compiled by the health department revealed.

All the three casualties, as per data compiled by the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), were reported in Ranchi, the district which has so far seen 11 black fungus deaths – the highest in Jharkhand. As per government data, at least five residents of East Singhbhum have died of Mucormycosis so far, while the toll in Ramgarh was three. Dhanbad and Godda have reported two casualties each.

So far, the state has reported 98 confirmed and 58 suspected cases of Covid-induced Mucormycosis. At least 78 patients have recovered from the fungal infection in Jharkhand, IDSP data highlights. The Jharkhand government notified mMucormycosis as an epidemic last month and directed all districts to report all data related to the disease to the IDSP every day.

Mucormycosis is a rare but lethal fungal infection caused by exposure to mucor mould found in soil, plants, manure and decaying fruits and vegetables. The disease has an average fatality rate of 50 per cent and Covid patients who were administered high dosage of steroids, especially those suffering from diabetes, were more prone to this infection, say doctors.

Meanwhile, the vaccination drive against Covid-19 hit a new low on Monday as the state managed to administer vaccine jabs to only about 14,000 residents, the lowest in a day this month. As per provisional data released by the National Health Mission (NHM), the first jab was administered to 10,372 residents, while the second dose was administered to 3,749 beneficiaries only. More than 9,000 residents below the age of 45 years got the Covid-19 jabs.

As per a bulletin from NHM, at least 13 districts – West Singhbhum, Simdega, Saraikela, Pakur, Lohardaga, Latehar, Khunti, Hazaribag, Godda, Giridih, Garhwa and Chatra – did not report fresh Covid cases. The active caseload of Covid-19 dropped to 390 in Jharkhand on Monday as the state reported at least 64 Covid recoveries against 43 cases of infection, NHM data highlighted.

While no Covid casualties occurred in the state on Monday, East Singhbhum was the only district to report a double-digit-spike. At least 10 cases against nine recoveries took the active caseload in East Singhbhum to 60, while eight cases against zero recoveries took the active caseload in Ranchi to 65.

As per government data, over 3.46 lakh Jharkhand residents have been infected by SARS-CoV-2 so far and 98.40 per cent of them have recovered, while 1.47 per cent of the patients have died. The doubling rate of cases in the state jumped to 5044.22 days on Monday against the national average of 708.51 days.