At least five fresh cases of coronavirus, including three from Capital city, were reported in Jharkhand on Monday, taking the total count of active Covid-19 cases in the State to 24, health officials said. With 11 cases in Ranchi, the State capital continues to be the worst-affected district in Jharkhand, they added.
"Samples of five suspects tested positive on Monday. Three of them are from Ranchi, and one each from Bokaro and Giridih," said Health Secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni. "All the three new cases in Ranchi are from Hindpiri," he added.
Two Bokaro residents tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday late evening, taking the count of coronavirus cases in the district to eight. On Monday, the count of cases in the district increased to nine. The duo, which tested positive on Sunday, visited Varanasi in March and may have contracted the virus from the city, said Bokaro Sub Divisional Magistrate Prem Ranjan. The two are related to a 75-year-old man who died of COVID-19 infection earlier this week, sources said.
Out of the 24 cases reported in the State so far, two patients –one each from Ranchi and Bokaro– have died, officials said. Out of the 22 active cases in State, 10 are from Ranchi, eight from Bokaro, two from Hazaribag and one each from Koderma and Giridih.
While the cases have been on the rise, the Government has managed to restrict all the cases to affected localities only. In Bokaro, five cases have been reported from Telo and three from Saram. Meanwhile, in Ranchi, all the active cases have been reported from Hindpiri. "We do not have isolated cases from other areas of the two districts, and that is quite a relief, given the circumstances," said a health official.
According to a report released by National Health Mission (NHM), by Monday the Government collected samples of 2523 Coronavirus suspects, and 1963 of them have tested negative. The lab test of the samples collected from 541 suspects is under process, it added.
Also, the number of people in home quarantine has reduced from 1.3 lakh to 1.07 lakh, indicating that around 24,000 people in home quarantine have shown no symptoms of the viral infection, the NHM report said. Nearly 15,000 people have been kept in quarantine centres across the State, it added.
Coronavirus cases in Jharkhand have shown an upward trajectory in April despite entering the State as late as March 31. All the 24 cases here, and the two deaths, were reported in less than a fortnight – a cause for concern for the Government here, say officials. None of the patients here have been cured so far.