Commuters caught by the police for not wearing facemask will be directly sent to a Covid care centre if they test positive for the viral infection in an immediate test conducted by the district administration in Ranchi, senior government officials decided on Tuesday.
The decision comes in the wake of blatant violations of Covid-19 restrictions by commoners and the rapidly decreasing fear of contracting Covid-19 infection among residents in the state capital, sources said. The district administration has also set up static Covid testing centres across the city for speedy testing of the violators.
A change in the Covid-19 trajectory in Jharkhand is likely to have triggered the government move. Fresh cases of Covid-19 infection outnumbered recoveries reported in Jharkhand on Tuesday, triggering a marginal fall in the recovery rate after an upward trend in the Covid recovery trajectory since a fortnight, a bulletin released by the National Health Mission (NHM) highlighted.
As per the bulletin, at least 233 fresh cases of Covid-19 infection, including 93 from Ranchi alone surfaced in the state in 24 hours, while 191 patients overcame the lethal viral infection during the same period. The Covid recovery rate in Jharkhand dropped from 97.07 per cent on Monday to 97.03 per cent on Tuesday.
Tuesday’s findings also caused a spike in the number of active cases after drop in the number reported for several consecutive days. As per government data, at least 2,242 people were battling the infection in Jharkhand on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, two more Covid patients, one each from Ranchi and Bokaro, died during treatment on the day, taking the Covid-19 toll in Jharkhand up at 955. The Covid mortality rate, however, was still 0.88 per cent in the state against the national average of 1.50 per cent, NHM stated in its bulletin.
Godda, Pakur and Hazaribag did not report even a single case of Covid-19 infection on the day, while 16 of 24 districts in the state reported a single digit spike in Covid cases. Ranchi, East Singhbhum and Ramgarh were the highest contributors to the Covid caseload on the day.
Ranchi reported 93 cases against 32 recoveries, while East Singhbhum reported 28 cases against 41 recoveries. At least 27 people were found infected in Ramgarh and 15 patients recovered there.
The Government also intensified testing on Tuesday. Swab samples of as many as 20,205 people were tested for Covid-19 on the day and over 1 per cent of them were found infected. Health workers also collected swab samples of 18,352 people from across the state in 24 hours.