Another Covid-19 suspect from Ranchi's Hindpiri locality tested positive on Wednesday, taking the total count of coronavirus cases in the State to 28, health officials said. At least 50 per cent of Jharkhand's Coronavirus cases are from Capital City Ranchi – all from Hindpiri, where the first case surfaced on March 31, they added.
"One suspect's samples tested positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday. He is around 35-year-old and a resident of Hindpiri," said Health Secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni. The health department was looking for more details about the patient and how he may have got infected, Kulkarni added.
Out of the 28 cases in Jharkhand so far, 14 are from Ranchi, nine from Bokaro, two from Hazaribag and one each from Koderma, Giridih and Simdega, health officials said. A 22-year-old Malaysian woman, who attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in New Delhi and was apprehended from a Mosque in Hindpiri, was the first carrier of the virus in Jharkhand, sources said.
While the Government has sealed Hindpiri locality, which has emerged as a hotspot of the virus in Ranchi, at least six fresh cases of Covid-19 were reported from the locality in less than a week, health officials said. However, the Government's timely intervention has prevented the virus from spreading in other parts of the city, he added.
Despite a delayed entry in Jharkhand, the virus has infected 28 people in around a fortnight – a cause for concern for the health department here. While the Government is planning to abide by the latest guidelines of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for partial relief from the lockdown, it is likely to keep the affected areas of Jharkhand locked, sources said.
The virus has claimed two lives in the State so far – one each from Ranchi and Bokaro. Meanwhile, the Ranchi district administration is looking for a place where the bodies of Covid-19 victims can be buried. Locals have refused to allow burial of Covid-19 victims in residential areas.
The Ranchi District Administration has identified four secluded spots for burying the bodies of Covid-19 victims, officials said. However, the Government is yet to finalise one of the four spots, they added.