Covid cases double, drones deployed in West Champaran

BETTIAH: Five days after its maiden Covid-19 positive five cases in Jogapatti block on Wednesday last, this containment zone in West Champaran district threw up further alarm with five new cases on Sunday. With this, the number of Covid cases in the district has doubled to ten.
DM Kundan Kumar said the new cases were among those in close contact with the first five cases detected earlier.They were all migrant workers who had recently returned from Delhi. “Among the fresh five cases, there are two women (aged 36 and 17) and three men (aged 41, 22 and 18),” Kumar said.
“The area has been cordoned off since the initial detection of the Covid cases last week ... no one is allowed either to go in or come out ... We are maintaining surveillance by drones,” the DM said. After the confirmation of the first five cases, over 50 people were quarantined in the Pakrihar middle school. The district administration, meanwhile, has kept strict vigil on the containment zone with a nodal magistrate and police officer each on round-the-clock duty.
“The containment zone has been divided into sectors ... every cluster of 50 houses form one sector ... all roads are blocked and officers ensure that citizens remain indoors,” he said and added, “We have ensured home delivery of essential items in the containment zone.”
Over the past three days, authorities collected 51 samples from the close community of the migrants found corona positive last Wednesday.