Almost 35 per cent of Jharkhand’s Covid-19 casualties were reported in the first 10 days of July — a trend that has rung the alarm bells for the health machinery in State, officials said on Saturday.

As per figures with National Health Mission (NHM), as many as 23 Covid deaths have been reported in Jharkhand so far and eight of them occured in the first 10 days of July. According to officials from NHM, the first 15 Covid deaths in Jharkhand were reported over a span of 90 days, and the next eight deaths occured in hardly 10 days.

“The frequency of Covid casualties has increased this month. But most of the victims were already suffering from comorbid conditions,” said Dr. Prabhat Kumar, the head of Jharkhand’s Covid-19 task force.

Although the Covid-19 mortality rate has increased in State, it remains much below the national average, officials said, claiming that the situation in Jharkhand was better than many other states, which have reported several hundred casualties.

Covid-19 cases have also been on the rise in Jharkhand this month, highlights government data. At least 1028 fresh cases of Covid-19 infection have surfaced in the state from July 1 to July 10, which accounts for around 30 per cent of the 3158 cases reported in Jharkhand so far.

A highly placed source in the health department said that July could well be the most challenging month for Jharkhand in its fight against Novel Coronavirus.

Requesting anonymity, a senior doctor at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Ranchi said that fear of community transmission looms large over Jharkhand as many people with no travel history have tested positive for Covid-19 recently. “Even road accident victims, who have neither traveled outside the state nor met Covid patients, have tested positive,” he said.

As per Government data, the Covid mortality rate in Jharkhand is 0.65 per cent against the national average of 2.72 per cent. The recovery rate in the state has dropped to 63.21 per cent from 75 per cent last month. The national recovery rate is 62.41 per cent.

According to the official website of the ministry of health and family welfare, over 22,000 Covid casualties have been reported in India so far, and Jharkhand accounts for around 0.1 per cent of the total Covid deaths in the country.