The count of Covid-19 cases in Jharkhand crossed 1,000 mark on Saturday as nearly 100 fresh cases surfaced here – the highest single-day surge reported since the entry of the virus in the State, health officials said.
At least 34 fresh cases of Covid-19 infection were reported from Simdega, the highest among the 12 districts where cases surfaced on Saturday, officials from the National Health Mission (NHM) said. As many as 21 cases were reported from Ramgarh, 10 from Gumla, six from East Singhbhum and five from West Singhbhum on Saturday. Besides, four cases surfaces in Ranchi and three each in Hazaribag and Latehar, health officials said. Cases were also reported from Saraikela, Palamu and Khunti.
The number of Covid-19 cases in State have reached from 500 to 1000 in roughly a month, health officials said, citing the return of migrants as the reason for the unprecedented increase in cases. At least 742 of the 1028 cases reported in Jharkhand so far are that of migrant workers, NHM officials said.
As per the daily Covid-19 bulletin was not issued by the NHM on Saturday, at least 90 suspects had already tested positive for the virus by the time this report was filed.
More than half of the 1028-odd people infected by COVID-19 virus so far in Jharkhand are in the age bracket of 11 to 30 years – a trend that highlights how young people were as prone to the virus as their older counterparts, health officials said. Out of the 1028 cases, 629 are in the age bracket of 11 to 30 years and 313 in rhe age bracket of 31 to 50 years, the NHM bulletin said.
According to NHM, more than 70 per cent of the COVID-19 cases reported in Jharkhand are migrant workers. At least 5 lakh migrants have returned to Jharkhand since the lockdown was imposed across the country in March, health officials said.
The Government has so far collected samples of 94,043 Covid-19 suspects from across the State, and more than 1000 of them have tested positive. At least 84,444 of the 94,000-odd samples collected have been tested so far, the NHM report said.