At least seven more cases of Covid-19 surfaced in Jharkhand on Saturday, taking the total count of coronavirus patients to 66, health officials said. Out of the seven new cases, four are from Ranchi and three from Palamu, they added.
No cases of Covid-19 were reported in Palamu district till Saturday afternoon. However, the final test results on Saturday late evening confirmed the entry of the virus in the district with three positive patients. "Seven suspects tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday. Three of them are from Palamu and four from Ranchi," said Health Secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni.
The concerned agencies are also investigating Tablighi links of the three cases in Palamu, he added.
While three of the four cases in the State capital were reported from Hindpiri –the hotspot of Coronavirus in the State– one case was reported from Kantatoli, health officials said. By now, the virus has infected people in Hindpiri, Bero and Kantatoli localities of Ranchi. The highest number of cases in Ranchi so far–41 of 43– have been reported from Hindpiri, officials said.
Meanwhile, four Coronavirus patients in Bokaro tested negative for the virus on Saturday, and were discharged from Bokaro General Hospital, officials from Bokaro district administration said. Bokaro is only behind Ranchi in terms of the number of Coronavirus cases across Jharkhand.
Out of the 66 COVID-19 cases reported in Jharkhand so far, 43 are from Ranchi, 10 from Bokaro, three each from Hazaribag and Palamu, two each from Dhanbad, Simdega and Deoghar, and one each from Giridih, Koderma and Garhwa. According to a daily COVID-19 bulletin released by the National Health Mission (NHM), at least 13 patients here recovered from the viral infection. However, one of them died of a cardiac ailment after testing negative for Coronavirus, health officials said.
By now, at least three COVID-19 patients in Jharkhand have died. Two of them were from Hindpiri in Ranchi and one from Bokaro. However, the second death in Ranchi has not been counted as a COVID-19 death as the woman, who died of cardiac ailments on Tuesday, tested negative for Coronavirus earlier that day, health officials said.
Adolescents and young people have been most vulnerable to the virus in Jharkhand, said the NHM report. At least 23 COVID-19 patients in Jharkhand were in the age bracket of 11 years to 30 years, it said. Besides, 22 patients were in the age bracket of 31 to 50 years, it added. Only three people above the age of 70 years were infected, and one of them –a 75-year-old Bokaro man– died.
There are a total of four testing centres in Jharkhand – two in Ranchi and one each in Jamshedpur and Dhanbad. The Government has so far tested samples of around 7000 suspects and 66 of them have tested positive.