Jharkhand recorded three more deaths due to Covid-induced Mucormycosis on Monday resulting in rise of total number of black fungus death cases in the state to 29. The health department apprised about the rising cases of the fungal infection with three more confirmed cases taking the tally of confirmed cases to 98 in the state.
All the three casualties, according to the data put together by the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), were recorded in Ranchi. Up until now Ranchi district has witnessed 11 deaths due to black fungus–the highest in Jharkhand. As per government data, in East Singhbhum, no less than five residents have died of Murcormycosis, while Ramgarh reported a total of three deaths. Dhanbad and Godda have each recorded two casualties till now.
Jharkhand IDSP data shows that the state has recorded 98 confirmed and 58 suspected cases of Covid-induced Mucormycosis. The number of patients who have recovered from the fungal infection is estimated to be 78. The Jharkhand government declared Murcomycosis as an epidemic last month and directed all districts to submit all data related to the disease. The doctors say Mucormycosis is a rare but lethal fungal infection caused when a human comes in contact with mucor mould found in soil, plants, manure and decaying fruits and vegetables. The disease has an average casualty rate of 50 percent and Covid patients treated with high dosage of steroids, mainly the diabetic patients, were more vulnerable to this infection.
Furthermore, the state managed to provide vaccine jabs to only 14,000 residents, the lowest count this month. According to the provisional data issued by the National Health Mission (NHM), the first dose of the vaccine was administered to 10,372 residents, while the second dose was provided to 3,749 citizens only. Additionally, for people below the age of 45 years, the state has managed to provide covid-jabs to more than 9000 residents. According to the NHM’s bulletin, there are at least 13 districts that have not recorded any fresh Covid cases. They are– West Singhbhum, Simdega, Saraikela, Pakur, Lohardaga, Latehar, Khunti, Hazaribagh, Godda, Giridih, Garhwa and Chatra. As the state reported, Jharkhand’s active cases of Covid-19 reduced to 390 on Monday. The NHM highlighted, 64 covid patients recovered against 43 cases of infection.
While no Covid fatalities were reported in the State on Monday, East Singhbhum was the sole district to record a double-digit spike in new infection cases. It reported 10 cases against 9 recoveries pushing the active caseload to 60, whilst in Ranchi 8 cases against 0 recoveries caused the active caseload to jump to 65.
As per Government data, until now 3.46 lakh Jharkhand residents have been infected with SARS-Cov-2. Out of these, 98.40 per cent of the patients recovered, whilst 1.47 per cent of the patients died. In the state, the doubling rate of cases jumped to 5044.22 days on Monday against the national average of 708.51.
