COVID 19 cases explode in Jamalpur town, Bihar total jumps to 197

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Patna, Apr 24 () The coronavirus outbreak exploded in Jamalpur town of Bihar's Munger district with 21 people testing positive for it on Friday, a senior official said, as the police resorted to flag march to warn loiterers to stay home.

Munger now accounted for 52 cases, more than a quarter of the state-wide total of 197, making it the worst-hit district. Another six positive cases were detected from different districts on Friday.

Jamalpur, over 175 km from the state capital and famous for its railway locomotive workshop, has been under a curfew-like situation for over a week. The chain of infection there is said to have been triggered by a vegetable seller who travelled on foot to Nalanda district for a Tablighi Jamaat event and ended up becoming the first COVID-19 patient in the town of nearly two lakh people.

Munger Superintendent of Police Lipi Singh conducted a flag march in the district to ensure strict compliance with lockdown and warned loiterers as well as those who ventured out of their homes without wearing masks of stern action.

Principal Secretary, Health, Sanjay Kumar said five males in the age group of14-46 years and 10 females, three of them aged between 10 and 12 years and the remaining in the age group of 20-38 years, tested positive in the afternoon.

In the morning, six residents of the same Sadar Bazar locality in the town were found infected with the virus. These included a 10-year-old boy and two men aged 57 and 70 years, besides three women in the age group of 18-60 years.

Three people tested positive in Nalanda, the second worst-hit district in the state with 34 cases. Two women aged 38 and 55 years from Bihar Sharif, the administrative headquarter of the district, tested positive. Besides, a man aged 28 years from Asthawan block, has been found infected with the virus, said the principal secretary.

In Buxar district, a six-year-old girl and a 60-year-old woman tested positive, he said. Both are residents of Naya Bhojpur village, which has reported half a dozen cases in the past one week.

Another case was reported from Banka district's Bishanpur village, Kumar said, adding that contact-tracing of the 36-year-old man was on.

A few days ago, a resident of Kosalpur village in the district had tested positive though it turned out that he was a migrant worker based in Mumbai, who was quarantined at a hospital in Bhagalpur during his journey back home.

Bihar reported its first cases on March 22 and reached the three-digit mark on April19, about four weeks later.

However, the pandemic has spread at a galloping speed since then and the total number of cases seems poised to cross 200 in less than a week. NAC SNS ABHABH