East Singhbhum district has made it compulsory for anyone coming from other states to remain in institutional or paid quarantine till such time he/she undergoes a Covid-19 test, the district health department measures coming amid apprehensions of community spread of the virus.

District civil surgeon Rajendra Nath Jha explained that they needed to alter the quarantine protocol since a number of people without travel history or known instances of having come in contact with an infected person, were testing positive for the virus.

"As per our latest quarantine protocol, any outsider has to get oneself checked at the entrance to the city and stay in a quarantine centre -- either institutional or paid until he/she is tested for the coronavirus. If a person tests positive, then he/she will have to be admitted to a Covid hospital. Otherwise, if a person tests negative, then he/she has to stay in home quarantine for a full 14 days," Jha told The Telegraph Online.

He said that for the last one week, the state government had changed this system and allowed 14-day home quarantine for anyone coming into the state.

Jha said positive cases were being detected at every locality and at almost all government institutions, including police establishments and hospitals. "This is the reason we had to make our quarantine system for an outsider more stringent," he said.

In the last 24 hours, East Singhbhum recorded 79 Covid positive cases, taking the total number of cases to 1,567. Of the 79 cases, only three have a travel history and six have come in contact with Covid patients. The remaining 70 who tested positive have had no travel history. Neither have they come in contact with a Covid patient.

Of the 1,567 total cases, 907 are active, undergoing treatment at various hospitals; 28 have died, while the remaining 630 have recovered.

Civil surgeon Jha said although the number of Covid cases have been declining in the past three days 124 on Sunday, 120 on Monday and 79 on Tuesday the concern was that most of the new cases had no travel history and had not come in contact with an infected individual.