East Singhbhum district, which has so far not figured in the Covid-19 map of Jharkhand, is not taking any chances.

According a directive issued on Thursday afternoon by East Singhbhum deputy commissioner (DC) Ravi Shankar Shukla to the district health department and district surveillance unit, all those persons who have entered the district from outside in the last fortnight will have to undergo mandatory swab tests for the novel coronavirus.

“We have completed the house-to-house survey and have made a list of persons who have come to the district in the last fortnight and their swab (throat or nose) would be taken for Covid-19 confirmatory test to be conducted either at MGM Hospital or Tata Main Hospital,” DC Shukla said. “We are not taking any chances. Directive has also been issued to ensure full compliance of the lockdown provisions in urban areas especially in the light of Ramzan,” he added.

The East Singhbhum district administration completed the house-to-house survey on Wednesday covering over 4,76,931 homes in the 11 blocks of the district. More than 1,700 sahiyas (rural woman health workers) and anganwadi sevikas, 1,885 booth-level officers, panchayati raj officials, civic body staff and police station-level community leaders.

Sources in the district administration revealed that during the survey in the blocks a total of 683 persons were found to have come from other districts, 3,334 persons were found to have come from other states and 27 had come from overseas. Out of these only 28 persons have flu-like symptoms. In the urban areas (Jamshedpur, Jugsalai and Mango)598 persons had come from other districts, 2,315 from other states and 385 from overseas.

East Singhbhum surveillance officer Dr M. Asad said that the directive has been issued to all the surveillance team members to conduct swab tests.

“We have asked the surveillance team members to take precautions and collect the swabs of those who had come from outside even though they may not have any symptoms. We have also asked all the hospitals to collect swab samples of frontline workers,,” said Dr Asad.

DC Shukla also directed the 25 incident commanders to prevent unnecessary movement of vehicles, issue temporary passes only for emergencies, and maintain social distancing near shops.