PATNA
A review of the Covid-19 pandemic in rural areas by the panchayati raj department has found the spread of the virus is less in north-east districts comprising Kosi and Seemanchal regions in comparison to the southern districts like Aurangabad, Gaya , Nalanda and some central Bihar districts, mainly Patna.
The department has instructed all mukhiyas (village heads) in the vulnerable districts having higher case load, especially in southern Bihar, to track symptomatic patients and ensure they are put on early medication after proper tests so that complications and mortality rate is reduced.
Bihar reported 14,794 cases on Tuesday, taking the tally of active cases to 110,430.
Sources said an internal assessment by the health department has concluded similar findings based on positivity rate (the percentage of people turning positive as against total number of tests daily) in the districts.
The district-wise positivity rate could not be assessed as senior health officials did not respond to messages and phone calls.
Bihar’s positivity rate stood at 15.6% on Tuesday while it was 16.1% on April 30, the highest so far after resurgence of Covid cases in the second wave.
“North-east Bihar is far less affected by Covid cases whereas southern districts are witnessing a surge in cases. The positivity rate in districts also indicate the same. Our review meeting with mukhiyas and other officials on Tuesday indicated the same trend,” said Amrit Lal Meena, additional chief secretary, panchayat raj department.
{{/usCountry}}“North-east Bihar is far less affected by Covid cases whereas southern districts are witnessing a surge in cases. The positivity rate in districts also indicate the same. Our review meeting with mukhiyas and other officials on Tuesday indicated the same trend,” said Amrit Lal Meena, additional chief secretary, panchayat raj department.
{{/usCountry}}Officials said panchayat representatives have been asked to monitor general health of people in their respective gram panchayats, especially in households where members are running fever. “For us, the next seven days are crucial as there are reports that an average 30% of the households in rural areas have some members having fever. It could be seasonal flu but we are taking updates from rural areas on a daily basis,” said a senior official in the department, seeking anonymity.
Some of the districts, whose Covid related data for last few days are available, corroborate the findings. For instance, Aurangabad recorded 535 new cases on Tuesday against 356 cases on Monday. Gaya recorded 767 cases on May 3 and 662 cases on May 2.Nalanda, the home district of chief minister Nitish Kumar, too has seen an upward trend, with 618 cases detected on May 3. Begusarai has also witnessed a surge in cases.
On the other hand, the number of new cases in north-east districts has fluctuated from 100 to 400 on a daily basis over last few days. The lowest number has been in Kishanganj and Madhepura, the latter recording 210 cases on May 1 and 299 cases on May. In other districts like Purnea, Katihar and Saharsa, the number of cases has remained below 400, as per official data.
“Our priority is to check the spread of Covid in rural areas in all districts,” Meena said, adding that panchayat representatives have already bought 40 lakh masks for distribution as per norms. Each household this time is being given six masks for protection against Covid.
Principal secretary (health) Pratyaya Amrit could not be reached for comment.