The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has given its nod for setting up of Jharkhand's fourth COVID-19 testing centre in Ranchi, Deputy Commissioner Rai Mahimapat Ray said on Monday. This will be the second testing centre in the State capital after the one at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), he added.
Two of the most active Coronavirus testing centres in Ranchi so far are at RIMS and Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Jamshedpur, health officials said. “The new testing centre, which will come up at Itki Sanatorium, will increase the number of tests conducted daily in Jharkhand and help the State detect cases more effectively,” said Ranchi Civil Surgeon Dr. VB Prasad.
Meanwhile, the district administration on Monday sanitised Madhumati Apartment in Bariatu, where a COVID-19 victim lived. He was tested positive while undergoing treatment for other ailments in New Delhi. The district administration, with support of GAIL (India), also sanitised Lake View Hospital in Ranchi, where the COVID-19 had undergone treatment before being referred to New Delhi, a press communique from Ranchi District Administration said on Monday.
Besides, Idris Hostel in Ranchi was also sanitised. Sources said that some of the Coronavirus patients in the city had stayed at this hostel before undergoing tests. “We are sanitising all the places where Coronavirus patients have stayed in Ranchi in order to ensure that the virus does not get transmitted to other people who live in the vicinity,” said Ray.
The Government has also started supplying ration to families living in Hindpiri locality –the only containment zone in Ranchi so far. Officials from the district administration said that ratio will be distributed among at least 8000 families here in order to ensure that the restrictions do not create any crisis. Earlier this month, the district administration also started mobile Automated Teller Machine (ATM) services here to ensure that the locals do not run out of cash. No Hindpiri resident is allowed to move out of the locality as per the guidelines for containment zones.
Out of the 24 cases reported in Ranchi so far, 23 are from Hindpiri –a Coronavirus hotspot in the heart of the State capital. A 22-year-old Malaysian woman, who attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in New Delhi, is said to be the first carrier of the virus in the locality. She was apprehended along with 17 other foreign nationals from the locality last month.
Two of them –the Malaysian woman and a man from Trinidad– have tested positive so far, health officials said.