State’s case growth rate nearly double than national average
Jharkhand’s seven days’ Covid-19 growth rate was almost double than the national average, as the state discovered over 43,000 cases in last 19 days
Jharkhand’s seven days’ Covid-19 growth rate was almost double than the national average, as the state discovered over 43,000 cases in last 19 days.
According to the health department’s April 19 bulletin, the seven-day Covid-19 growth rate in the state was 2.10% against the national average of 1.18%.
All parameters, except mortality rate, remained poor in comparison to the national average. While the state’s seven-day doubling period was 33.35 days, the national average was 59.25 days. Jharkhand’s recovery rate was 80.87% against the national 86%.
Jharkhand, which logged 124,201 cases till March 31 this year, added 43,034 new cases in last 19 days with an average daily detection of around 2,265 cases.
The state reported its highest-ever single-day spike recently on Monday after discovering 4,290 cases, that pushed the tally of active cases to over the 30,000-mark.
Jharkhand has as many as 30,477 active cases, of which Ranchi contributed 11,726 active cases alone.
However, the district has a total of 2,995 beds comprising isolation beds, oxygen-supported beds, ICU and ventilator beds in both government and private sectors.
The rising number of cases in the state has put health care and services in crisis causing much trouble to patients, with many of them dying in last 10 days allegedly for want of adequate treatment.
The state was also facing acute shortage of life-saving drugs, particularly Remdesivir injection meant for Covid-19 treatment.
Taking seriously the pressing need of Remdesivir, chief minister Hemant Soren earlier wrote to Union minister of chemicals and fertilizers DV Sadananda Gowda, seeking permission to import 50,000 vials of the said medicine worth one million dollars from Bangladesh-based pharmaceutical company BEXIMCO.
Soren stated, “...The precariousness of the situation will be evident from the fact that against the total order of 76,640 vials, Jharkhand has received only 8,038 vials of Remdesivir injection in the last fortnight, leading to the medicine not being administered to many needy patients. Since we could not get this medicine as per our requirement from Indian manufacturers, we explored international markets and obtained a quotation from BEXIMCO, Bangladesh.”
Many Jharkhand parliamentarians and legislators have released constituency funds for meeting the growing demand of oxygen cylinders and medicines.
Recently on Monday, Union minister Arjun Munda released ₹50 lakh from his constituency fund for meeting the urgent requirement of medical oxygen in his Khunti constituency.
