The Covid-19 tally in Jharkhand drew close to 50,000 on Saturday as over 1700 people, including 656 in Ranchi alone, were found to be infected by the deadly SARS-COV-2 virus, the National Health Mission (NHM) stated in its daily bulletin released on Saturday late night.

The bulletin, released at around 11pm, further stated that seven people died of Covid-19 infection in Jharkhand on Saturday, taking the death toll in the state to 462.

East Singhbhum, the district which has reported highest number of Covid fatalities in the state so far, saw four of the seven casualties on Saturday, while Ranchi, Dumka and Koderma reported one death each. At least 211 of the 460-odd Covid deaths in Jharkhand have occurred in East Singhbhum, triggering panic among locals and officials concerned.

Meanwhile, the number of active cases of infection in Ranchi reduced on Saturday as 1076 Covid patients recovered from the infection here in 24 hours, bringing the number of active cases down to 4005, the NHM bulletin highlighted. However, the district continues to top in terms of active cases of infection in Jharkhand, while East Singhbhum holds the second position with over 2500 active cases.

East Singhbhum on Saturday reported 244 fresh cases and 322 recoveries, while Dhanbad saw 125 cases and 50 recoveries.

Among other districts, Bokaro reported 116 fresh cases, while West Singhbhum reported 164 cases of infection in 24 hours. As per figures with the health department, as many as 49,797 people have been infected by the virus so far in Jharkhand and 34,330 of them of recovered. At least 15,005 Covid-infected residents of Jharkhand were still battling the virus.

As per figures with the health department, the 2287 recoveries on Saturday took the Covid recovery rate in Jharkhand to 68.93 per cent, which is lower than the national average of 75.27 per cent.

The mortality rate of Covid patients in Jharkhand also dropped to 0.92 per cent on Saturday despite seven patients dying in 24 hours. The national Covid mortality rate, as per government figures, was 1.85 per cent on Saturday.

On Saturday, the government tested swab samples of 27,164 people and 25,410 of them came negative. Health workers in Jharkhand have collected swab samples of 10.89 lakh people and tested around 10.80 lakh of them.

The state, as per 2011 census, has a population of 3.29 crore, which means that around 3 per cent of the total population has been tested so far in Jharkhand.