A 52-year-old Hazaribag man, who returned from West Bengal on March 29, has tested positive for coronavirus, health officials said on Thursday.
The man's negligence towards the lockdown and carelessness may have got him infected, they added.
"A man in Hazaribag has tested positive. He has travel history to West Bengal, and was already in quarantine when we tested him," said Health Secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni.
Jharkhand's first positive case of COVID-19 – a mysterious virus that has claimed more than 50 lives in India and infected over 20,000 people across the country – was reported from Ranchi earlier this week.
The woman who became Jharkhand's first Coronavirus patient had travel history to Malaysia.
However, the Hazaribag man who tested positive on Thursday has no travel history to foreign countries – an indication that he may have possibly contracted the virus from an Indian carrier in the neighbouring State, a health official said.
According to National Health Mission (NHM), the Government here has collected samples of at least 421 Coronavirus suspects, and the reports 38 of them are awaited. The entry of COVID-19 in Jharkhand has also led to speedy testings, officials said.
The Government of India enforced a nationwide lockdown from March 23 midnight as a preventive measure against the virus. The State Government too has been running rigorous campaigns to maintain the lockdown. However, in such a situation, what urgency made the Hazaribag COVID-19 patient violate the rules of the lockdown is not known.
"It is high time that we start taking the lockdown seriously and realise that moving out can actually be dangerous," a health official in the thick of events said, adding that abiding by the rules of the lockdown could have protected the Hazaribag man from getting infected by the lethal virus.
Government has swung into action across the state to prevent the virus from spreading further. A State Minister’s son, who also happens to be an office bearer of the Tablighi Jamaat, was sent to a Government quarantine centre along with seven others on Wednesday in Deoghar district. The Minister too was put in home quarantine along with his family, they added. Their test reports are awaited, district officials said at the time this report was filed.