272 in isolation wards across Jharkhand

At least 272 suspects of COVID-19 were admitted in isolation wards of various hospitals across Jharkhand as of Saturday, an official communiqué from the National Health Mission (NHM) said. On the other hand, a whopping 73,000 odd emigrates with travel history to different affected States in India were kept in home-quarantine across Jharkhand, it added.

While Jharkhand is among the few States that have not reported even a single case of Coronavirus, doctors and health workers here have collected samples of at least 179 patients so far and 175 of them have tested negative.

The lab test reports of the remaining four suspects are awaited, NHM officials said. Besides the 73,000 travelers on home-quarantine and 272 at hospitals, the State has also maintained surveillance on 911 passengers – this mostly includes people who have traveled from foreign countries, sources in NHM said. Out of the 911 passengers under surveillance, 163 have completed their observation period of 28 and came out asymptomatic, health officials said.

The number of travelers identified in Jharkhand witnessed an over 50 per cent increase in 48 hours or so. The number of such “emigrates” reported on Thursday was 45,000 and it rose to 73,000 on Saturday – a pattern that indicates that many residents of other States have traveled to Jharkhand after the Coronavirus outbreak, officials from the Health Department said.