Jharkhand witnessed the highest ever single-day surge in the number of Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, health officials said. At least 38 new cases of Covid-19  infection were reported from six districts, taking the total count of Coronavirus cases in the State to 286, they added.

All the 38 suspects who tested positive on Wednesday are migrant workers, said Health Secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni. "More than 100 migrant workers have tested positive for Covid-19  since May 5. We had almost overcome the situation before the migrants returned to State" he said. 

The highest one-day surge in Covid-19 cases reported in Jharkhand till Tuesday was 22, health officials said. The sudden surge in the number of cases, they said, was primarily due to the return of migrant workers. "The return of migrant workers has completely changed the equation. New cases are surfacing from rural areas too, which is worrisome," said a senior health official, requesting anonymity.

Out of the 38 cases reported on Wednesday, 18 are from Garhwa, seven from Koderma, five from Jamshedpur, five from Hazaribag and one each from Gumla and Hazaribag, officials from the National Health Mission (NHM) said. More than half of the 280 people infected by coronavirus so far in Jharkhand are in the age bracket of 11 to 30 years – a trend that highlights how young people were as prone to the virus as their older counterparts, health officials said.

Most of the migrant workers testing positive for Covid-19 are also under the age of 40 years, said an NHM official. Wednesday's findings increased the number of active cases to 146 in Jharkhand. However, the NHM was yet to release its official daily Covid-19  bulletin by the time this report was filed on Wednesday.

The Government has so far collected samples of nearly 50,000 COVID-19 suspects from across the State, and less than 300 of them have tested positive. The first Covid-19  infection was reported in Jharkhand on March 31 when a Malaysian woman with Tablighi Jamaat links tested positive.