April breaks all records: Over 1L cases, 1,400 deaths

As on April 30, the state has so far reported 227,450 cases, 2,540 deaths

RANCHI: The ferocity of the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic across Jharkhand can be gauged by looking back at the growth of cases and fatalities in April during which over 1 lakh cases and more than 1,400 deaths were reported, according to the state health department’s Covid-19 bulletin.

The state, which discovered its initial one lakh cases in seven months between March 31 and October 27 last year, detected the same number of cases in one month of April alone this year. Besides, the mortality growth also rose as the state recorded more number of deaths in April alone than what it reported in the first 12 months of pandemic.

While Jharkhand registered a total of 1,113 Covid-19 deaths till March 31 this year, it added another 1,427 deaths in merely 29 days of April.

According to the state bulletin, Jharkhand discovered 103,249 cases and reported 1,427 deaths between April 1 and 29. It, however, saw 48,770 recoveries during this period. These cases came after testing 10.02 lakh samples with a positivity rate of 10%.

The growth of cases broke all previous records in April, as the state reported its highest ever single-day spike in positive cases and mortality on April 28 with 8,075 cases and 149 deaths. Till April 29, there were 55,877 active cases in the state.

Last year, Jharkhand peaked at 3,331 cases on August 31 after holding a special testing drive on campaign mode. After April 20 this year, the state was discovering more than 5,000 cases on a daily basis.

State capital Ranchi, that is the hardest hit by the pandemic, alone discovered over 32,000 cases and registered 548 deaths out of the 1 lakh cases and 1,427 deaths reported from across the state.

According to April 30 morning bulletin, the state has so far reported a total of 227,450 cases, including 55,877 active cases, 169,033 recoveries and 2,540 deaths.

The seven-day case growth rate in the state was 2.10% against the national average of 1.18%.

All state parameters stood poor in comparison to the national average. On April 29, the seven-day case growth rate was 2.55% against the national average of 1.36%. While state’s seven days’ doubling period was 27.52 days, the national average was 51.48 days.

Jharkhand’s recovery rate was 74.31% against the national 82.10%. The mortality rate stood at 1.11% against the national average of 1.10%.

The rising number of cases in the state has put health care and services in crisis causing much trouble to patients, with many of dying for want of adequate and timely treatment.

The state was also facing acute shortage of oxygen-supported beds and life-saving drugs, particularly Remdesivir, meant for Covid-19 treatment.

Many Jharkhand parliamentarians and legislators have released constituency funds to meet the growing demand of oxygen cylinders and medicines.