Response to COVID-19: Jharkhand, India

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had an unprecedented global impact. Since its onset, the Government of India, State Governments and local authorities have been directing all their efforts towards handling the crisis. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) with the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) will be releasing a series of articles on case studies of response actions for COVID-19. These articles illustrate the approaches and strategies adopted across many Indian cities and states. The articles cover initiatives adopted towards controlling the spread of the virus, ranging from technological interventions, communication strategies, multi-sectoral governance mechanisms, and community participation.

The state of  Jharkhand is located in the eastern part of  India,  next to  Bihar and  Uttar  Pradesh,  with an estimated population of 32.96 million; comparable to that of Canada. The state has a large tribal population,  with abundant natural resources, and is known for its natural beauty and abundant waterfalls and wildlife in Betla National Park, as well as some elegant Jain temples, among other elements. As detecting this disease is not easy due to its mild symptoms - in many cases no symptoms at all - and given the absence of any remedial drugs or vaccines so far, it has been recognized that the only way to control its spread is social distancing and isolation of those who are infected. Given all these constraints, Jharkhand has had to innovate to win the fight against the novel coronavirus. The state has been able to keep the number of cases under control in spite of large inbound migration.