Two new cases of Covid-19 were reported late on Friday night in the district, merely four days after the first Covid-19 patient was discharged from the hospital.

The new patients are both relatively better-off migrant labourers, one aged 25 from Bagridih under Domchanch police station area, and the other aged 34 from Dharaidih under the ambit of Jainagar police station. The Domchanch youth worked at an interior design firm in Delhi, while the Jainagar one was a cutter and polisher at a diamond unit in Surat.

The youth from Domchanch returned on May 2. He told The Telegraph that he started his journey from Delhi on April 25 by hitchhiking on a tanker after walking around 20km.The driver charged Rs 1,000 per head from all five passengers, including him, to drop them off at Varanasi. He and two others, also from Domchanch, stayed in Varanasi for another couple of days at a hotel where they slept on the terrace, the owner charging them for meals only.

On May 1, the Domchanch trio took a lift from a truck driver. The truck dropped them at Barhi in Hazaribagh on May 2 from where they hired an SUV to reach the village for Rs 3,600.

The youth, after spending some hours at home with his 12 family members, went to Koderma Sadar Hospital, from where he was sent to the Domchanch isolation center and his swab samples taken.

The second patient, who worked at VD Global Pvt. Ltd, a diamond firm in Surat, said that he reached Koderma by a bus along with 52 colleagues by paying Rs 2 lakh.

He said out of the 53 men, 13 got down at Barhi, Hazaribagh, on GT Road, one at Telaiya and the police brought the rest 39, including him, to the screening camp at JJ College here. “After screening, six including me were isolated and rest were home quarantined,” he said.

Now, both the patients have been shifted to the Covid-19 hospital, Holy Family.

Koderma deputy commissioner (DC) Ramesh Gholap and superintendent of police Ethesham Waquarib visited Bagridih village on Saturday to take stock of the situation as the youth had spent some hours at home on arrival. The youth’s wife, mother, two children and younger brother have been isolated.

The DC said the area had been sealed and the entire village sanitised. He urged people to stay home, follow safety guidelines and cooperate with the administration.

20 new cases

Garhwa: Twenty persons tested positive for Covid-19 in Garhwa on Friday night, taking the total number of active cases in the district to 21.

Two patients were discharged from hospital on the same day after making full recovery. Civil surgeon N.K. Rajak said all the 20 new patients had been shifted to the Covid-19 hospital at Meral. They were part of a group of 51 labourers who had arrived from Surat on May 5.

The remaining 31 have tested negative.

The test reports of 53 labourers who arrived here on May 6 are awaited.

The samples of 54 labourers who returned on May 7 from Surat were sent to RIMS in Ranchi on Saturday.

They have all been kept at a quarantine centre at Banshidhar Nagar.