East S’bhum admin focuses on testing after spike in Cov cases in hinterland

Jamshedpur: With a sudden increase in the number of new Covid cases in rural areas of East Singhbhum, the district administration is now focusing on testing and containment measures in villages across 10 blocks of the region.
Since June 4, the rural blocks cumulatively reported 46, 45, 26 and 202 positive cases a day, compared to 56, 28, 19 and 146 cases in urban sprawls. With 87 and 84 positive cases Baharagora and Potka topped the list in terms of new cases, while Musaboni with 58 cases was third. On Tuesday, the district reported 348 COVID positive cases, of which 202 cases were reported from the village areas.
Additional chief medical officer (ACMO) Dr. Sahir Pall said, “A door-to-door health survey conducted in the rural blocks from May 25 to June 7 has helped identify new cases. Testing and tracing has been increased in the villages following the spurt. We have set a target of 200 tests per day in each of the rural blocks.”
Pall said that along with testing and tracing, the department is making efforts to convince villagers to go for vaccination. About 4% of the beneficiaries in the 18-45 age group and 44% in the 45-plus category have been inoculated in the rural areas so far, sources in the district health department said.
The district has reported 50,958 Covid cases till Tuesday, of which 49,107 have recovered, 1,042 have died of the disease while 809 are undergoing treatment.