The district health department bringing change in the quarantine protocol in view of a spike in the Coronavirus positive cases has ordered that those coming from other states to the steel city or to the rural pockets of the East Singhbhum district will have to remain institutionalised or paid quarantine for at least a week.

 District civil surgeon, Rajendra Nath Jha said that in view of the rising number of Covid cases here, the East Singhbhum district has implemented its own quarantine policy.

"Concerned over the rising cases we have decided that any outsider coming in the city will have to get checked up  at the entrance to the city and has to be put in a quarantine centre -- either at an institutionalised quarantine or  at a paid quarantine until the visitor is not subjected to a swab test for the Coronavirus.  If the person is tested positive, then he or she will have to be admitted at a Covid hospital otherwise if the person is tested negative then he or she has to be put in the home quarantine for a total of 14 days," said Jha.

The civil surgeon said the Coronavirus positive cases are now being detected at every locality and almost all government institutions, including the police establishments as well as the hospitals.

In the city of the 1,567 cases, 907 are active cases and are undergoing treatment at various hospitals,  28 have died and the remaining 630 have returned home after their recovery.

 The civil surgeon said though the number of Covid cases has decline during the past three days, with the maximum number of cases was on Sunday which was 124 followed by 120 on Monday and 79 on Tuesday, but the declining number of positive cases having travel history and coming in contact with the infected persons is the cause of concern for the district health department.

“We have taken a decision to enforce the quarantine norms stringently because of the reported spike in the positive cases of the novel coronavirus, as well as the number of people coming in,” said an official.

The department stated that ‘close contacts’ should also go in institutional quarantine. “Institutional quarantine is advised for high-risk people. Paid hotel quarantine is being promoted so people have more options for institutional quarantine. Institutional quarantine is needed as staying at home comes with its own risk of spreading the infection,” said the official.