A 55-year-old trader from Balrampur in Purulia district of Bengal, who had come to the steel city on May 23 for treatment and stayed at his relative’s house in Sitaramdera before getting admitted to the Tata Main Hospital on May 24, tested Covid-19 positive on Tuesday morning.

The positive case took East Singhbhum district tally to 25.

“The 55-year-old man had come from Bengal on May 23 for cardiac check-up at Tata Main Hospital on May 23 and stayed at his relative’s house in Sitaramdera and then went to Tata Main Hospital and got himself admitted on May 24. His sample tested positive at the Tata Main Hospital private lab on Tuesday morning. We have started contact tracing of the positive patient and have sealed the containment zone at New Layout Area, Sitaramdera,” said East Singhbhum deputy commissioner Ravi Shankar Shukla.

Sources in the district administration said the asymptomatic patient who is in Tata Main Hospital’s Covid ward was stable on Tuesday evening.

“It is crucial that meticulous contact tracing of the positive patient is done. City SP Subhash Chandra Jatt is leading the contact tracing with assistance of the special cell of the city police and the district health department. We also got information that the positive patient used to have a flat in Kasidih and had gone to the flat but found later during contact tracing found that it was false,” said a senior police officer.

East Singhbhum deputy commissioner and senior superintendent of police M. Tamilvanan jointly supervised the sealing and setting up of a control room and other protocols in the containment zone at Sitaramdera.

A buffer zone was also set up on both sides of the containment zone.

House-to-house survey began in the containment zone on Tuesday afternoon under the supervision of Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee (JNAC) special officer Krishna Kumar who is also the incident commander for Sitaramdera. All residents of the containment zones were made to download the Aarogya Setu app on Tuesday.

“People considered high risk will be shifted to the Tata Main Hospital isolation ward for 14 days of quarantine and their swab will be taken for confirmatory tests,” said district epidemiologist M. Asad.

All movement of persons and vehicles in the containment zone has been strictly barred. Essential items such as food and groceries will be delivered at doorsteps by volunteers after information at the control room set up by the district administration.