Railway trackman tests positive for COVID-19 in Jharkhand, count rises to 34

A railway trackman has tested positive for coronavirus in Jharkhand's Dhanbad district, taking the total count in the state to 34, an official said on Sunday. The total number of confirmed cases in the state includes two deaths, one each in Ranchi and Bokaro districts, he said.

The sample of the person working with the East Central Railways tested positive for the disease on Saturday, Dhanbad Deputy Commissioner Amit Kumar said. The man, a resident of Railway Colony in Hirapur area, was being treated at the Divisional Railway Hospital for fever, Kumar said.

He had visited his in-laws' residence at Chas in the neighbouring Bokaro district to meet his pregnant wife and returned to Dhanbad on a bicycle on March 26. He complained of fever the next day, health department officials said. The first positive case in Dhanbad district was reported in Kumardhubi in Gyarahkhund block near the West Bengal border on April 8.

The highest number of coronavirus cases has been reported in Ranchi city at 18, followed by nine in Bokaro district, two each in Hazaribagh and Dhanbad and one each in Simdega, Koderma and Giridih districts.