5 new cases as Jharkhand does 1k tests in a day

Ranchi/Daltonganj: Five migrant workers who returned to their homes in Palamu from Chhattisgarh in an autorickshaw on May 1 tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday, taking the state’s tally of coronavirus cases to 132. Of these, 89 are active cases while 41 have recovered and two have died during treatment.
This is the second instance of returning migrants testing positive. On Wednesday, two persons returned who returned to Dumka from Gurgaon tested positive for the virus.
Meanwhile, Jharkhand for the first time tested more than a thousand samples on a single day, surpassing the 750 figure on May 5. A total of 1,7101 samples have been tested in the state so far.
State health secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni said, “Five people from Palamu district tested positive for covid-19 on Thursday. Samples from all other districts turned out to be negative.”
The five patients are residents of Manatu, Noudiha and Patan blocks in Palamu district and were quarantined at a centre set up at Palamu Medical College Hospital upon their arrival from Chhattisgarh.
Talking to TOI, Palamu DC Shantanu Agrahari said: “All five were under quarantine since their arrival, when they were spotted by authorities near the Chainpur border. Four are men in their early 20s and the fifth is a 30-year-old woman. All of them are asymptomatic.”
Palamu civil surgeon John F Kennedy said, “All five had travelled on an autorickshaw and its driver has also been quarantined. We are monitoring his health and no one will be allowed to leave until their samples test negative.” The district administration has begun contact tracing and identified 12 persons whose samples will be collected.