Jharkhand reports fourth COVID-19 positive case

Ranchi (IANS) Another woman has tested positive for the coronavirus in the state capital on Monday, taking the count of such cases in the state to four, health officials said.

This is the second consecutive case in Jharkhand, 24 hours after a woman was tested positive at Chandrapura of Bokaro, on Sunday, after she had returned from a religious congregation in Bangladesh.

On March 31, the state registered its first confirmed case when a Malaysian woman was tested positive. She was the part of 22- people group of 17 foreign nationals who were recovered from two mosques in Ranchi. The group had descended to Ranchi last month after attending Tablighi Jammat in New Delhi's Nizammudin.

Jharkhand's second case was reported from Hazaribag district when a 52-year-old man was tested positive for Covid-19. The man had returned to the district from West Bengal's Asansol on March 29 amid nationwide lockdown.

Considering the positive cases, Ranchi district administration had imposed a ban after the first case was confirmed in the state. Initially, the Hindpuri people have protested the screening and tried to restrict the health workers, but later screening of 10,158 people were successfully conducted.

As per the state govt data, total of 911 samples of suspected patients had been sent for testing out of which 727 have so far tested negative. The results of the remaining samples are still awaited. On Sunday a total of 136 samples were collected.

The health department has set up two dedicated hospitals for the coronavirus patients at the state level, having a combined capacity of 155 non ICU and 30 ICU beds with ventilators whereas, at the district level 1449nNon ICU beds and 209 ICU beds have been identified. The total number of beds in quarantine centres across the state was 39,612, authorities said.