E-Paper
6th death in Bihar; 85 cases in 24 hours
PATNA
PATNA
Bihar reported its sixth death to coronavirus when a 60-year-old male died in Patna on Sunday, as the number of cases increased by 85 - biggest single-day spike so far - taking the overall state tally of the cases to 696.
A resident of Belchhi block in rural Patna, the patient was admitted to the Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH) on May 8.“Sixth death of Covid +ve patient… A case of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (end stage lung disease), [the patient] died of cardio respiratory arrest,” said Bihar’s principal secretary, health, Sanjay Kumar, in a tweet.
“The patient came from Delhi and was quarantined,” he added.
The deceased tested positive for Covid-19 today.
Earlier this week, a 70-year-old male died at Rohtas district on May 7. He was admitted to the private Narayan Medical College and Hospital (NMCH) in Rohtas with acute breathing trouble, after being referred to the Sasaram sadar hospital.
A patient each from Munger, Vaishali, East Champaran and Sitamarhi districts infected by coronavirus, have died so far since the first fatality to the virus reported in the state on March 21.
Of the cases reporting positive Sunday, Patna accounted for nine, followed by Kishanganj (8), Saharsa and Madhepura (7 each), East Champaran (4), Muzaffarpur, Arwal (3 each), Nawada, Gaya, Araria, Darbhanga (2 each) and a case each from Begusarai, Bhojpur and Aurangabad.
Four of the nine cases from Patna were from Barh, two from Pandarak and a case each from Alamganj, Barh and Belchhi.
Bihar has shown a sudden spike in cases of coronavirus after migrant workers from other states began returning by special trains from May 2.
“#BiharFightsCorona of the 49 who tested Covid-19 +ve positive yesterday, 44 are migrants who have come from different parts of the country,” said Kumar in a candid tweet on Sunday.
“Going by our experience over the past 10 days, almost 60% to 70% of the tested samples, which came positive, were of people who came from outside the state,” Kumar had earlier said on May 4. That meant at least 224 new cases already, given that 374 Covid-19 cases were reported in the state between April 23 and May 3.
However, giving a bifurcation of positive cases among migrants, health secretary Lokesh Kumar Singh said, “Though the data is dynamic, 142 people from Bihar who have come from outside the state have so far tested positive. Of them, 85 cases have tested positive after May 4.”
“Of the 85 migrants testing positive after May 4, 30 had returned from Maharashtra, 22 from Gujarat and eight from New Delhi. The rest of them had come from Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Rajasthan,” he said.
Singh said samples of those who had come from red zones outside the state were being tested.
Around 1.02 lakh migrants had reached Bihar by 83 Shramik special trains, operated this month till Saturday. All of the migrants had been lodged at block level quarantine centres and samples were testing samples, said Anupam Kumar, secretary, information and public relations department.
“We plan to operate a total of 169 special trains, of which 83 have reached Bihar and another 86, carrying 1.20 lakh migrants, are scheduled to come over the next few days. We expect around 2.22 lakh migrants to reach the state by 169 special trains,” Kumar said.
Fourteen special trains reached Bihar Sunday and 20 more, carrying 23,540 passengers, would operate on Monday, he said.
The government was also planning to operate 2-3 trains on a daily basis from Mumbai.
He said the government had given its consent to bring some more students who were stranded in Kota. Already, 13,472 students from Bihar have returned by 11 special trains from Kota.
Meanwhile, Munger topped with 115 of Bihar’s 696 Covid-19 cases spread across 37 of its 38 districts. It was followed by Rohtas (59), Buxar (56), Patna (55), Nalanda (49), Siwan (33), Kaimur (31), Begusarai (27), Madhubani (24), Bhagalpur (23), Bhojpur (19), Gopalganj (18), Aurangabad, East Champaran (14 each), Katihar (12), West Champaran, Darbhanga, Arwal (11 each), Madhepura, Saharsa, Kishanganj (9 each), Saran, Gaya, Samastipur (8 each), Sitamarhi, Muzaffarpur (6 each), Jehanabad, Nawada (5 each), Lakhisarai, Banka, Vaishali, Araria (4 each), Sheohar (3), Purnea, Sheikhpura, Khagaria (2 each), , Supaul (1 each).
NOD TO PRIVATE LAB TESTING
The state government Sunday gave its consent to two private laboratories, Dr Lal Path Labs in Patna and the Path Kind Diagnostics Pvt Ltd. in Khemnichak (Patna) and Jhuran Chapra (Muzaffarpur), to test people for Covid-19 in an effort to scale up testing in the state.
The laboratories could charge a maximum of ₹1,500 for Covid-19 screening and ₹3,000 for confirmatory test.
Bihar had so far tested 32,670 samples of Covid-19.
Thirty-six Covid-19 patients had recovered during the last 24 hours taking the total number of patients to have recovered so far to 354.
The recovery rate was 54% of the total Covid-19 cases in the state, said the health secretary.
