Covid situation remarkably improved in Jharkhand.

“It’s waning in the state and there is no imminent danger unless a new variant pops up and infects afresh,” opined Dr Manoj Kumar, who heads the Covid task force at Ranchi’s Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, adding Covid will, however, not disappear immediately.

With 449 new cases of infection and 715 recoveries and two deaths, the state had 2,787 active cases at 9 pm on Saturday, down from 10.990 a month ago on January 5.

There are also not many symptomatic cases among those infected. On Friday, 224 of the total 3,055 active cases were symptomatic accounting for only 7.33 per cent of the total caseload. The positivity rate also came down from 5.64 per cent to 0.95 per cent during the period while the recovery rate that was 95.53 per cent (less than national average of 98.0 per cent) on January 5 also improved to 98.12 per cent that was better than the national average of 95.60 per cent.

Though the number of active cases came down in both Ranchi and East Singhbhum districts, these two together still have about half the total active cases in the state, 49.65 per cent to be specific though down from 56.61 per cent a month ago.

Ranchi had 4,628 active cases on January 5 that came down to 839 or 30.10 per cent of the state’s total caseload after a month on Saturday.

Similarly, East Singhbhum also recorded a decline in the number of active cases during the past one month — from 1,594 on January 5 to 545 on Saturday that accounted for 19.55 of the state’s total active caseload.

Meanwhile, the state also recorded improved achievement in its vaccination drive.

Jharkhand vaccinated 61 per cent of its estimated 2.15 crore adult population till Saturday that was 48 per cent a month ago on January 5, though it missed the target of fully vaccinating all of them by January 15.

The state also administered first dose of Covid vaccine to 45 per cent of the teenagers in 15-17 years age group, estimated at 23.98 lakh.

It also gave precaution or booster dose to 13.65 per cent of estimated 12.28 lakh heath and frontline workers and comorbid senior citizens.