The Covid-19 hit the family of Chief Minister Hemant Soren as his wife Kalpana Soren and their children Nitil and Vishwaj were tested positive for the virus. However, the test report of the Chief Minister turned negative of Covid-19. But the state government will not take a chance hence fresh samples of the Chief Minister will be sent for testing.
As many as 15 staffs of the CM secretariat have been tested positive. The test report of Sunil Srivastava (private secretary) and Abhishek Prasad (press advisor) turned negative.
Samples of another 62 staff of the CM secretariat have been sent for testing and after the spoke of cases, the CM secretariat and CM House have been sanitised. There is a temporary stop for visitors to visit both places. The Chief Minister has decided to stay indoors and he is now holding official meetings through the virtual mode and he has completely isolated himself.
State health minister Banna Gupa too has been tested positive for Covid-19. Gupta tweeted that he was feeling unwell for the past couple of days and has been tested positive. The union health Mansukh Mandviya called him and inquired about his health.
Jharkhand has witnessed a steady rise of cases in the past couple of days The number of active cases of Covid-19 is 21098 across Jharkhand as on Saturday 5081 new cases were detected. Ranchi has the highest number of active cases (1731) followed by East Singhbhum having 1043 active cases. Surprisingly, the neighbouring West Singhbhum has recorded 177 cases only.
Three more persons died on Saturday across Jharkhand leading to 13 deaths in the third spell of the virus. However, it is not clear so far whether these deaths and fresh cases are because of the new variant Omicron as the Jharkhand government still doesn’t have the proper facilities to identify Omicron.
Meanwhile, in other developments booster doses of the coronavirus vaccine will be provided in Jharkhand from January 10. In this, 6.50 lakh people above the age of 60 years and having co-morbidity, 2.09 lakh health care workers and 3.68 lakh frontline workers will receive the third dose of the vaccine. The Jharkhand government has completed its preparation and has also issued guidelines in this connection.
Arun Kumar Singh, Additional Chief Secretary of the Health Department, has sent a letter to the DCs of all the districts and directed them to get the vaccination done as per the guidelines.
As per the guidelines from Centre, those who have taken the second dose of Covaccine, have to get the third dose of Covaccine. Similarly, those who have taken the dose of Covishield will receive Covishield.
Those who have completed nine months or 39 weeks of the second dose, can get the third dose. Co-morbidity patients aged 60 years and above, health and frontline workers can register online or onsite on the Covin website. SMS of the third dose will also be sent to such beneficiaries from the Covin system.
