Jharkhand’s Covid curve takes a turn for the worse, active cases surpass recoveries
Health experts, however, opine that the increased testing in the state is the real cause of such reversal.
The dimension of Covid-19 pandemic has once again altered in Jharkhand, which, for the first time in more than a month, is witnessing a higher number of active infections than the recovered cases. On Monday, there were 2,889 active cases in the state compared with 2,835 people who have recovered.
With 178 new cases reported during the day, the tally has now gone up to 5,777, according to a government bulletin.
The higher number of active cases comes at the time when in some states, the recovery count is more than the count of active cases. For instance, in Delhi, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, those recovering from Covid-19 are more than those testing positive.
On June 14, Jharkhand had 900 active cases and 816 recoveries. However, the very next day the active cases went down to 848 while recoveries climbed to 905.
Since then, the state had maintained the same status--recoveries being higher than active cases-- till July 17. On July 2, the state had the maximum gap between the recovery count (1,988 cases) and active cases (582).
However, the steep surge in cases in July has swelled up the tally of active cases. During this period, the daily discharge of patients after they recovered remained less than the daily detection of cases. This resulted in the narrowing of gap between the total recovery count and active case count.
The rate of recovery then started declining and came down to 49.32% on July 18 from its peak of 76.90% on July 2.
On July 18, the state had again seen a reversal when the active cases (2,681) were more than the recoveries (2,656).
According to the health department’s bulletin issued on July 19, Jharkhand has a total of 5,552 cases, including 2785 active cases, 2718 recoveries and 49 deaths.
Health experts, however, opine that the increased testing in the state is the real cause of such reversal. “The three T formula (Tracing, Testing and Treating) is the only solution to contain the spread of the pandemic. Acting on this, the state has increased its testing capacity by setting up new laboratories and diagnostic machines. We are now testing an average of 5,000 samples daily,” said Praveen Karn, state epidemiologist.
He added, “The more you test, the more cases will be reported. The rise in active cases is, therefore, obvious. But, on the other hand, an infected Covid-19 patient requires at least 14 days for recovery. So, the pace of recovery can’t be increased as it is time-bound.”
The state has ramped up sampling and testing in the last 15 days. The average daily testing of samples has been raised to 5,000 from 2,500 during this period. On July 16, 17, and 18, over 6,000 samples were tested per day.
