Garhwa district administration is on alert after people without any contact or recent travel history outside the state tested positive for coronavirus in the past few days. Late evening on Saturday, the district recorded 24 new cases and six more surfaced on Friday, taking the district tally to 144. As many as 109 Covid-19 positive patients have recovered. Now active cases are 35 in the district.

One of the six new cases on Friday  were detected in Banshidhar Nagar among returnees from Gujarat, but  other five found positive in the district had no contact or travel history.

Only three of the 24 new cases detected on Saturday  in  Bhandariya returned from Hazaribagh, While 21 new cases were detected in Garhwa, Meral ,Ranka, Bhandariya block area  including 10 pregnant women and six police personnel from Police line. They too did not have any contact or travel history.

“Community transmission began in the district since two to three days,” said Garhwa civil surgeon Dr. NK Rajak. Community transmission occurs when a person with no travel history to a Covid-19-affected area or known contact with a confirmed case tests positive for the disease. It indicates undiagnosed and often asymptomatic people are unknowingly causing infection, which makes it difficult to break the chain of transmission, Civil Surgeon added. “From these cases, we can clearly assume there is spread of coronavirus infection in the district . That is why I request the public to immediately call 104 or get in touch with our healthcare personnel if they have symptoms of dry cough, fever, respiratory issues and diarrhoea,” Civil Surgeon Dr. N K Rajak  said on Sunday.