A nurse in the Isolation Ward of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Ranchi tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, officials from the health department said. Besides, another resident of Hindpiri –the hotspot of Coronavirus in State– also tested positive, they added.
"The nurse who tested positive today was already in quarantine. We test all the medical staff working in isolation wards on rotation basis, and her test results came out positive," said Health Secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni. "The suspect who tested positive is a woman from Hindpiri," he added.
Wednesday's test results take the total count of COVID-19 cases in Jharkhand to 127, health officials said. According to the daily COVID-19 bulletin released by the National Health Mission (NHM) on Wednesday evening, at least 37 Coronavirus patients here have recovered and there are 87 active cases in State.
Three COVID-19 patients have died so far, and one of them tested negative before breathing her last, officials said.
With Wednesday's test results, the number of nurses testing positive in State rose to four. Earlier, three nurses from Sadar Hospital in Ranchi tested positive. Besides, last week, a staff at the microbiology department of RIMS tested positive – a development that led to suspension of testings at the centre for at least four days, officials said.
According to NHM, the Government collected samples of at least 16,545 suspects, and tested 15,908 of them. Ranchi, with 93 cases, continues to be the worst-affected district in Jharkhand. Ranchi is also the only COVID-19 red zone in State, and has 15 containment zones.
There are 33 COVID-19 containment zones in Jharkhand. The remaining 18 containment zones are spread across the nine districts that fall in the category of orange zones here, officials said.
Out of the 127 cases here, 93 are from Ranchi and 10 from Bokaro. The remaining affected districts have cases in single digit. At least 37 patients have recovered and three have died, it said.
At least 21 patients in Ranchi have recovered, while six have recovered in Bokaro. Three in Hazaribag, two in Dhanbad and one in Simdega have won their battle against Coronavirus so far, the bulletin released by NHM said.
As many as 55 of the 127 cases in Jharkhand are in the age bracket of 11 to 30 years and 42 are in the age bracket of 31 to 50 years, the NHM report said.
The figures highlight that even young people were as vulnerable to the virus as the older ones, officials said.