East Singhbhum district, which has seen 20 Covid-19 positive cases since May 12, has decided to take schools and railway coaches to set up quarantine centres.

East Singhbhum additional deputy commissioner Saurabh Kumar Sinha said the rise in the number of Covid-19 positive cases with a large number of migrant workers returning to the district from other states has created a demand for quarantine centres.

“As of now we have a 5,000-bed capacity in our quarantine centres across the district in which some 4,300 people have been kept. We plan to increase the number to 1,000 more,” said Sinha.

Sinha added that they would take railway coaches at the Tatanagar station, Professional College at Bagunhatu, Kerala Public School (Golmuri), Motilal Nehru Public School (Sakchi) and Vivekanand School (Mango) to convert them into institutional quarantine centres.

East Singhbhum deputy commissioner Ravi Shankar Shukla and SSP M. Tamilvanan had on Friday evening jointly inspected the existing six quarantine centres in various parts of the steel city and inspected the facilities.

“We will make arrangements of food and water and other basic needs at the new quarantine centres, depute security, train master trainers to teach those in quarantine centres about health protocols for Covid-19 such as washing hands, using sanitisers, wearing masks and maintaining social distance,” said DC Shukla.

After migrant workers and residents of the district arrive from other states and districts by trains, buses or private vehicles, they are taken to health centres to collect their throat and nasal swabs at various centres and are kept in quarantine centres till their samples’ test reports come from the lab of either MGM Medical College or Tata Main Hospital.

This typically takes between two-three days.

If the sample test shows the person is Covid-19 positive, he or she and the persons they have been in touch with are immediately shifted to the Tata Main Hospital in |Bistupur.