Jharkhand registers 1,084 new Covid-19 cases, 40 security staff of CM’s residence test positive

Jharkhand on Saturday reported the highest ever single-day spike in Covid-19 cases and fatalities after 1,084 people were found infected with coronavirus and 14 patients died in different hospitals across the state.

As many as 40 security personnel deployed at chief minister Hemant Soren’s residence, 73 inmates of Ranchi’s Birsa Munda Central Jail (BMCJ) and 41 police personnel in Giridih district were among the 1,084 new patients detected on Saturday.

The state, however, also witnessed the highest ever single-day recoveries after 888 patients were cured and discharged in the last 24 hours.

With these new cases, the state’s total count touched 17,626 including 9,067 active cases, 8,391 recovered cases and 168 deaths.

According to the health department’s bulletin released on August 8 night, Ranchi topped the list after detecting a maximum of 412 cases, the highest ever single-day spike of any district. Besides, Giridih reported the second highest number of cases adding 286 patients.

Of the 14 deaths reported on Saturday, seven occurred in East Singhbhum’s Jamshedpur, four in Dhanbad and one each in Ranchi, Godda and Koderma districts.

With the addition of 412 new Covid-19 cases, Ranchi has so far reported 3,563 cases including 2,074 active cases, 1,460 recoveries and 29 deaths.

“The 40 people in the chief minister’s residence are security guards. They came in contact with two cooks, who had tested positive earlier,” said state health department’s principal secretary Nitin Kulkarni.

He added, “People still are not following the preventive measures like using masks and maintaining social distancing in their true sense leading to a spike in cases. Police personnel living in barracks get easily infected due to ignorance of social distancing norms.”

On August 4, chief minister Hemant Soren along with his family members and staff had undergone the Covid-19 test after 19 people associated with his office and residence including some cooks and security guards were found infected.

However, test reports of the CM and his family members returned negative. A day later, another 22 staff of the CM’s residence were found infected with the disease.

This is the second time in less than a month that the CM had undergone the Covid-19 test and was found negative. Earlier in July, the chief minister had placed himself in home quarantine after coming in contact with a minister and his party’s legislator who was found infected with the virus.

According to the health department’s bulletin of August 8, the pandemic’s seven days growth rate stood at 5.24% and disease’s doubling period was 13.57 days. The recovery rate was 47.65% and mortality rate was 0.91%.