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Migrant push to take Jharkhand tally to 1,600 in 2 weeks: Health secretary

RANCHI: The arrival of migrants and stranded persons from across the country might push Jharkhand ’s Covid-19 tally to over 1,600 by June 15, the state government projected on Friday.

“Two weeks ago, we had close to 250 cases. As on date, there has been more than 470 cases. If we go by the current trend, then Jharkhand will have close to 1,600 cases within the next fortnight,” health secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni said.



While there were 259 active cases till Friday evening, East Singhbhum had the highest of them (37) followed by Hazaribag (36), Koderma (30), Ranchi (26), Garhwa (22), Gumla (20), Ramgarh and West Singhbhum (15 each), Giridih (13) and Dhanbad (10). Chatra, Deoghar, Godda, Dumka and Jamtara have no active cases at present.

While the state’s positivity rate is 0.82%, five districts have rates higher than 1%. “The positivity rates in Garhwa (5.8%), Bokaro (5%), Koderma (2.94%) and Ranchi (1.55%) are particularly high,” Kulkarni added.

Jharkhand’s Covid growth rate stood at 6.4%, higher than the national average of 4.9%. However, the state’s mortality rate is 1.05%, lesser than the national average of over 3%.

While Jharkhand’s doubling rate stood at 11.1 days, districts like Dhanbad, Bokaro, Latehar, East Singbhum, West Singhbhum, Dumka, Hazaribag, Simdega and Koderma have reported doubling rates in between four and five days.

Kulkarni said the state’s test rate improved to 1,526 cases a day, but it is still below the national average. Close to 58,000 persons have been tested so far across the state, including 33,000 returning migrants. “In all, around 10% of total migrants have been tested so far,” he added. Kulkarni said that 20 Truenat machines are expected to arrive in Ranchi on Saturday.

The department said 8,669 beds across 207 hospitals have been earmarked for Covid-19 patients. Of them, 500 are ICU beds and 3,350 have oxygen support. There are 215 ventilators in all.

The government said there are 134 containment zones in Jharkhand. “Among the 29,604 samples collected from these zones, 263 have tested positive,” Kulkarni added.

Speaking before Kulkarni, state disaster management secretary Amitabh Kaushal said over 5 lakh people have returned to Jharkhand since May 1. “Of them, 2.57 lakh have come in 143 special trains while 1.85 lakh came in buses. Approximately, 1 lakh people came in their own vehicles and on other forms of transport,” he added.

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