SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Jan 10: The railway station and check posts at the Jharkhand- Bengal border have turned into hotspots of Covid cases in Dhanbad. Almost 50% infected persons of the total tally are found at these places daily.
Official records reveal that in the last 24 hours (till Sunday night), a total 199 cases were recorded in the district. Out of them, 77 were found at these two places.
Officials of the health department said that 55 passengers tested positive at Dhanbad railway station and 22 at national highway check-posts.
A senior official of the health department said that the situation of Dhanbad is not alarming as case figures show. Dhanbad’s own cases are below 100 per day but infected cases of other districts make the tally near 200.
“Majority of the infected passengers found at Dhanbad railway station were traveling from Bengal via trains. So, we have tightened the testing process of passengers at the railway station. The positive passengers are either admitted at Covid care centre or sent to home isolation. Those who refuse to be admitted are sent back to their home state. A woman from Asansol was sent by another train to Bengal after she refused to go to the Covid care centre,” said the official.
At Panchet check post of Jharkhand-Bengal border, 111 Dhanbad visitors were screened in which 17 were found positive. Among them, 13 were from Bengal and 4 from Dhanbad district.
Similarly at Chirkunda check post, 200 people were screened in which 5 were found positive. In lack of proper health department paper, one of them was sent back.
