Dumka has become the twelfth district in the state to report Covid-19 cases, with two persons testing positive for coronavirus on Tuesday.
The two patients are part of a nine-member group of labourers that had come from Gurgaon on May 1.
On May 2, the district administration had sent them to the quarantine centre at Kasturba Gandhi Awashiye Vidyalaya in Saraiyahat along with two other local residents who had coronavirus-like symptoms. Their samples were sent to PMCH in Dhanbad on the same day. On Tuesday (May 5), the reports of two persons came positive.They were immediately shifted to the isolation ward of Dumka Medical College & Hospital.
The two positive cases have prompted Dumka police to implement the lockdown strictly in Saraiyahat block.
The district administration has also appointed a special officer to oversee the implementation of lockdown orders. Surveillance around Dumka town has been intensified and no one is being allowed to enter or step out.
On Tuesday night, Dumka deputy commissioner (DC) Rajeshwari B. held a high-level meeting with health department officials on ways to check the spread of the virus.
“The entire area has been sanitised and residents have been asked to stay in their homes and follow the lockdown rules. We have directed all hospitals, including private ones, in Dumka, to monitor patients coming with symptoms similar to Covid-19,” the DC told The Telegraph.
Terming the development as an unfortunate turn of events, she said: “We have never dealt with a pandemic outbreak of this kind. We are taking all adequate measures to check the spread of the killer virus.”
