Passengers from southern states of India have led to an alarming spike in Covid-19 cased in Ranchi in the past one week, believe health officials who said on Saturday that a majority of the new Covid patients detected in the state were travelers coming to Ranchi from either Karnataka or Tamil Nadu.

As per data compiled by the National Health Mission (NHM), the active caseload of Covid-19 in Ranchi was 52 on August 8. Cut to Saturday, at least 95 people were battling Coronavirus infection in this district. This last week has seen a rise in Covid cases after a sustained drop in cases over a period of several weeks owing to strict restrictions, health officials said.

However, there are hardly any local patients with severe symptoms, said Ranchi civil surgeon Dr Vinod Kumar, adding that the Covid ward of Sadar Hospital in Ranchi had only one patient admitted on Saturday and he was stable.

“Most of the new patients in Ranchi were travelers coming from either Karnataka or Tamil Nadu,” said Kumar, adding that the screening at railway stations, airport and bus stands needs to be intensified in order to check the spread of the virus among locals.

“We have come across cases wherein passengers have tried to dodge Covid tests at the railway station and later tested positive for Covid-19,” the civil surgeon said. “I would suggest that security be beefed up around railway stations and bus stands, so no passenger can avoid the mandatory Covid test,” he added.

Testing all passengers coming to Ranchi was important as undetected Covid patients may transmit the infection to local residents and the cases might increase, said Kumar, claiming that the easing of restrictions in the state did not play a major role in the spike in Covid cases.

“If the spike was due to the relaxations provided by the government, then more local residents would have tested positive,” he said.

Ranchi has been the worst-affected Jharkhand district in terms of caseload and fatality since the SARS-COV-2 virus made its entry in the state. As per government data, the district has reported 1,585 of the 5,131 casualties in Jharkhand and also accounted for 85,468 of the over 3.47 lakh Covid cases reported in the state so far.

Ranchi is also well-connected to different cities of India via railways and airways, which increases the chances of infected people entering the district and spreading the virus among local residents, officials said.