7 from E Singhbhum among 9 Covid deaths, Ranchi gets 257 new cases

Ranchi: Jharkhand recorded none Covid casualties and 708 new infections in 24 hours, with Ranchi recording its biggest single-day spike in new cases with 267 persons detected with the novel coronavirus in 24 hours until 10pm on Thursday. Of these, seven casualties are from East Singhbhum – taking the district toll past 50.

The figures include 82 cases detected on Wednesday night.

With 680 recoveries (biggest one-day figure) reported on Thursday, the total number of Covid cases in Jharkhand rose to 15,756, of which 9,017 are active, 6,594 have recovered and 145 have died.

Even as the spike in number of cases continued in state; the positivity rate of samples tested reduced to almost half in comparison to Wednesday with 626 samples of 6,929 testing positive (9%). In revised data issued by the state government for Wednesday, Jharkhand recorded more than 1,000 cases for the first time as 1,060 samples of the 5,372 tested returned positive (almost 20%).

Of the nine casualties, seven are from East Singhbhum and one each from Sahebganj and Garhwa district. “All nine were suffering from more than one comorbidity. The patient from Sahebganj was admitted to a private hospital in Ranchi and the other patient died in Garhwa district covid hospital,” said a health department official.

On being asked about the death toll in East Singhbhum district, which now has 52 Covid casualties, a senior health department official said: “Most patients who died at Tata Main Hospital (TMH) were admitted to TMH with comorbidities as they have been getting treated there for years. Many were suffering Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome and some were on chemotherapy. Many tested positive after they died and they are being counted in the tally.”