News Analysis India

Tag: Covid 19 in Jharkhand

  • No new Covid-19 fatality in Jharkhand; fresh cases dip to 90

    By PTI
    RANCHI: Not a single COVID-19 related death took place in tribal-dominated Jharkhand during the last 24 hours showing signs of recovery, while the fresh cases declined to 90, a health department bulletin said on Tuesday.

    No new COVID-19 cases were reported from seven of the 24 districts – Deoghar, Dumka, Jamtara, Khunti, Koderma, Pakur and Ramgarh – during the last 24 hours.

    The state now has 1,005 active COVID-19 cases while the death toll remained at 5,111.

    The 90 new COVID-19 cases pushed the tally to 3,45,430, the bulletin said.

    East Singhbhum district reported 19 cases, followed by 10 from Gumla and 9 from Bokaro.

    However, the mortality rate in the state remained at 1.47 per cent, higher than the national average of 1.30 per cent.

    The recovery rate among coronavirus patients in the state has improved to 98.22 per cent, better than the national average of 96.80 per cent.

    At least 115 more patients recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries to 3,39,314, the bulletin said.

    Altogether, 98,80,072 samples have been tested for COVID-19 in Jharkhand, including 56,088 since Monday, it added.

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    In a bid to combat the second wave of COVID-19, the government has extended the lockdown like restrictions in the state till July 1.

    Several other restrictions, including seven-day mandatory quarantine for people visiting the state, have been in place.

    The state has also suspended the operation of the intra and inter-city bus services and restricted the maximum number of attendees in a wedding event to 11.

  • Jharkhand extends COVID-19 lockdown-like restrictions till July 1

    By PTI
    RANCHI: The Jharkhand government on Wednesday extended the lockdown-like restrictions till July 1, as per an official notification.

    This is the seventh time that the COVID-related curbs, first imposed in the state on April 22 for a week, were extended.

    The ongoing measures were scheduled to end on June 24.

    “The provisions….related to observance of Swasthya Suraksha Saptah in the context of Covid-19 shall stand extended from 6 am on June 24 till 6 am on July 1, 2021,” the notification issued by the Disaster Management Division said.

    The order was signed by Chief Secretary Sukhdev Singh.

    “We have taken the decision to extend the Health Safety Week for another week as we are not out of danger and there is a possibility of a third wave,” Chief Minister Hemant Soren said.

    The prevailing restrictions will continue with no new curbs or relaxations announced, a state government official said.

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    Last week, some relaxations were announced, including the opening of shopping malls and departmental stores till 4 pm.

    Inter-state and intra-state bus transport shall remain prohibited, except for the buses specifically used by the district administration.

    E-passes will remain mandatory for inter-state and inter-district movement in private vehicles but for movement within a district, no e-passes will be required.

    Religious places will remain closed and so will be the educational institutions.

    The decision was made at a meeting of the state disaster management authority, chaired by the chief minister.

  • Detection of multiple Covid variants puts Jharkhand on high alarm

    By PTI
    RANCHI: Alarmed by the detection of several variants of coronavirus in Jharkhand with 328 confirmed cases surfacing so far, the state government has directed the authorities to despatch samples within 48 hours of a patients death for conducting a genetic study to understand the mortality rate and evolve a strategy to contain the spread, a top official said Tuesday.

    Battling the deadly second wave of the COVID-19 that has claimed 5,100 lives in tribal-dominated Jharkhand, the state government is concerned as these variants like Delta, Alpha, and Kappa are said to be more transmissible.

    “As many as 328 of the 364 samples have tested positive for variants like Delta, Alfa, and Kappa in the state in course of whole genomic sequencing”, State Health Secretary, Arun Kumar Singh said.

    The state is committed to taking all necessary steps to stop the spread of the virus to protect its citizens by adopting evidence-based containment measures, the health secretary said.

    Whole genomic sequencing (WGS) is a laboratory process that is used to determine nearly all the approximately 3 billion nucleotides of an individuals complete DNA sequence, including non-coding sequence which is instrumental in characterising the mutations and tracking disease outbreaks.

    Of the 328 positive cases, 194 cases are of Delta variant B.1.617.2 which is a “variant of concern”, Singh said.

    A variant can be labelled as “of concern” if it is more contagious, more deadly, or more resistant to current vaccines and treatments, the World Health Organisation had said.

    “This variant is significantly more transmissible and somewhat resistant”, the official said.

    Twenty-nine cases were found to be of B.1.617.1 variant which has been named Kappa, the health secretary said In addition, 29 cases are of B.1.1.7 Alpha variant, he added.

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    The Alpha variant is also a strain “of concern” as it spreads more rapidly than the original strain.

    Apart from these, a few other variants of coronavirus have also been detected in the state, Singh said.

    A maximum of 145 cases has been detected from Jamshedpur followed by 56 from state capital Ranchi.

    Both the districts have been witnessing a high number of COVID-19 cases and fatalities.

    Dhanbad accounted for 49 cases of the variants, Hazaribag 48 and Palamu 30, he said.

    “For identifying the strains of the virus prevailing in the community, the state has sent 364 positive stored RT- PCR samples to Regional Genome Sequencing Laboratory (RGSL), Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) Bhubaneshwar for WGS,” State Chief Epidemiologist Dr.

    Praveen Kumar Karn said.

    The samples were sent from Ranchi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), IRL, Itki Ranchi, District Palamu Medical College, and Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College, Jamshedpur which have been identified as Sentinel Surveillance Sites.

    “This sequence will help in better planning for the future and alert f the Health Department to plan for better management of the patients”, Dr. Karn said.

    A total of 537 samples had been sent to ILS.

    Bhubneshwar between March and April 2021 for WGS out of which 364 were processed.

    In a letter to heads of the sentinel surveillance sites, the health secretary mentioned, “All labs are directed to get the SRF ID of the death cases from the District Administration and send the respective samples for WGS within 48 hrs.

    “Therefore samples of all those patients who have died on or after 1st April 2021 shall mandatorily be sent for WGS to ILS, Bhubneshwar.

    Hence, all identified Sentinel sites are directed to kindly comply with all activities for combating this large outbreak COVID-19”.

    Meanwhile, Chief Minister Hemant Soren said that even though the rate of recovery is more than 98 per cent in the state, the danger is not over.

    “According to experts, the third wave may trouble us in six to eight weeks and the state government has made preparations for it but it would not be possible without the help of people”, he added.

    The number of active coronavirus cases in Jharkhand has been recorded at 1,489 while the death toll has reached 5,100.

    New coronavirus cases were recorded at 122, which took the caseload to 3,44,665.