PINAKI MAJUMDAR
Jamshedpur, Jan 6: The East Singhbhum district registered its highest single-day spike in six months on Wednesday when 658 people tested positive causing the active caseload to shoot past the 1600 mark.
Earlier on Tuesday, 402 cases were reported in the district. East Singhbhum’s death toll so far remained at 1,065 with no deaths reported on Wednesday.
The 658 new cases took the total active cases in the district to 1601. As many as 12 doctors, 22 medical students and seven health workers got infected with Covid-19.
With the sudden rise in cases, the health department is on its toes and started screening of patients. The health department appointed 30 incident commanders to check the spread of the virus.
Moreover, a 26- member contact tracing team was also constituted, confirmed a health department official.
East Singhbhum deputy commissioner Suraj Kumar also issued an order to all the private hospitals and nursing homes for free checking of patients coming to OPDs.
The positivity rate rose to 3.90 per cent in Jamshedpur.
The cumulative coronavirus case count stands at 53,905 and the death count is now 1065, according to the latest health bulletin.
The new cases came out of the 16,873 tests conducted on Wednesday.
Health department officials said they would go for aggressive containment and stricter enforcement of health protocols such as wearing masks, use of sanitizers and maintaining social distance.
