COVID-19: Authorities announce harsh steps as Bihar town resembles ‘Wuhan’

Patna: The state government in Bihar has announced to jail persons if they were found loitering on the streets in utter violation of the lockdown and also register their names in the ‘Goonda Registers’ as the north-western Siwan district of Bihar emerges as another ‘Wuhan’.

Of the total 64 COVID-19 positive cases reported in Bihar, 29 alone are from this one district, raising the concerns.

Authorities said the lockdown violators would be arrested under relevant provisions of the Disaster Management Act and 123-year-old British era law, Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 to strictly enforce lockdown to check spread of the deadly virus in the community. The violation of the law could get the violators jail terms up to three years, they said. Apart from this, their names will also be listed in “Goonda Register”, a special register maintained by the police stations to identify potential troublemakers.

“We are going to initiate very tough action against the lockdown violators. They will be arrested and charge-sheeted within 24 hours,” Bihar director general of police Gupteshswar Pandey said on Sunday. He said the persons on the streets would have to provide concrete reasons and evidence lest they would be booked.

Authorities decided to initiate harsh measure after the number of coronavirus positive cases alarmingly increased in the past one week. According to a report of the state health department, the total number of such cases claimed to 64 so far.

What gas alarmed the authorities is that as much as 29 cases have been reported from one Siwan district which is being widely described as Bihar’s ‘Wuhan’. Health officials said these all happened because of a youth in his late 20s who recently had returned from Oman on March 21 but hid his travel history. By the time he was tested positive, the virus had spreads to 23 people — 21 in his family and two among his neighbours — as he continued freely mixing with the local villagers.

The officials have now completely sealed his village and none is allowed to visit even the houses of neighbours let aside going out o the village. The officials are also sanitising the village while two senior officials have been deployed there to oversee the sanitisation drive.

“We are strictly implementing the quarantine process and keeping a close watch on the persons put under hoe quarantine,” Bihar health secretary Lokesh Kumar Singh said on Sunday adding they were sanitising the areas in a radius of three kilometres of affected villages.