Jharkhand: Haradag Khurd Village on high alert after 21 new COVID cases found in 2 days

Haradag Khurd in Garhwa district, a village in Jharkhand has been put on high alert. This was done due to 21 people from there testing positive for COVID-19 in the past 48 hours. All 21 including eight children in the age group of 2 and 12 years have been admitted to Sadar Hospital, Garhwa and their all contacts have been isolated.

The villagers tested positive after migrant workers from Madhya Pradesh returned. From the workers who had returned, one worker was initially found suffering from coronavirus and it's suspected that the villagers might have caught the infection from him. That worker was in a colliery area where the Delta Plus variant of COVID-19 had been detected.

Haradag Khurd on alert; 21 COVID cases in 2 days

Arun Kumar Singh  Jharkhand Additional Chief Secretary of Health said, “Initially, 19 villagers were found positive. All of them have been admitted to Garhwa Sadar hospital. We are taking all possible steps to contain the spread of the virus and have kept officials on high alert in the area". Rajesh Kumar Pathak, Garhwa Deputy Commissioner said, “Our surveillance team is visiting villages and we are taking all possible steps to contain the spread…Special precautions are taken in the village Haradag Khurd with a population of about 300 villagers”.

COVID cases in Haradag Khurd; virus spread via migrant worker 

Officials have said that if needed, samples of the virus will be sent to the Regional Genome Sequencing Laboratory (RGSL) and Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) Bhubaneshwar for WGS. The state does not have a genome sequencing machine. A Civil Surgeon from Garhwa said, “The health machinery swung into action and 25 persons including all his family members were subjected to tests along with two other families with whom he interacted. Twenty people were found to be positive including the migrant worker and eight children who are in the age group of 2-12 years”. 

Total deaths in Jharkhand from COVID

A total of 5,126 people have died so far in Jharkhand. The state is still battling the deadly second wave of COVID-19.
The state had been recently witnessing a lesser number of new positive cases but this detection of 21 cases in a short spell of time in the Garhwa village has raised concerns among the health officials. 

(IMAGE: UNSPLASH)