Jharkhand sees record 159 fatalities from Covid-19, death toll climbs to 2,829

Jharkhand saw a record new 159 deaths from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of fatalities to 2,829 on Sunday. The state saw 6,323 new cases of infection, taking the total to 23,9734, as per the report issued by the health department. The report said that of the 2,39,734 cases, a total of 1,78,468 patients have recovered. Of the total deaths, 45 casualties occurred in the state capital Ranchi.

Meanwhile, the BJP's leader of legislative party Babulal Marandi on Sunday attacked chief minister Hemant Soren, asking him to understand the gravity of the situation in the state and do something when people were dying during the second surge of the Covid-19 pandemic.

"The state is in a tizzy. People are dying in agony. Open the eyes and understand the seriousness. Do something," Marandi said in a tweet asking Soren to swing into action.

Returning the attack, the ruling JMM in a tweet said "it is a low-level politics" during these sad times and questioned why it took the central government 13 days to give permission to import a life-saving drug Remedisivir. The JMM tweet was retweeted by chief minister Hemant Soren.

Marandi in a series of tweets also alleged that the death rate in Jharkhand due to Covid-19 was much higher at 2.67% as against the national average of 0.94%.

"The condition in capital Ranchi is horrible where the death rate has been 3.27% and recovery rate is only 44%," Marandi said in a tweet, asking Soren "to do something."

He said even in the neighbouring Odisha 54% of the people recovered and the death rate was barely 0.11%, he said adding that though 85% of the people in Jharkhand have recovered, the death rate was still 2.67%.

Marandi even cited the case of Maharashtra, saying although the state was badly affected, 96.91% of people there recovered and the death rate was registered at 1.27%.