Jamshedpur: In the wake of a resurgence of Covid-19 cases, the East Singhbhum administration has written to the designated Covid hospitals, asking them to keep their beds ready as the district is likely to see an influx of virus patients. “We have directed the hospitals to keep 500 general beds ready by March 31 and 1,200 by the end of April,” Sahir Pall, the additional chief medical officer of East Singhbhum, said. There are 12 designated Covid hospitals in the district.
In less than a week, the number of active Covid cases in the district have doubled from 78 on March 16 to 161 on Tuesday night. Even the rolling seven-day average of daily new infections has risen by more than 100% — from 10 to 23 — in the same period. From May 12 last year when the first case of coronavirus was reported in the district till March 23, East Singhbhum has witnessed 18,523 cases.
While East Singhbhum, with 356 Covid casualties till Tuesday evening, remains the worst affected of all 24 districts as far as the death toll is concerned, there have been no casualties here since January 16, when the only coronavirus-related death of this calendar year was recorded. The death per cases rate has fallen from 2% in the end of 2020 to 1.89% on Tuesday night.
“Although there are no casualties at the moment, the rise in the number of cases is concerning and we need to maintain all the safety protocols without fail,” Indian Medical Association’s president (Jamshedpur chapter) Umesh Khan said.