E-Paper
Bihar announces 11-day long lockdown till May 15 amid rising Covid cases
The state has reported 11,407 positive cases on Monday taking the number of active cases to 107,667.
The Bihar government has announced lockdown in the state till May 15 in the wake of rising Covid-19 cases and continuing shortage of life saving drugs, medical oxygen and hospital beds across the state. Chief minister Nitish Kumar announced the decision through a tweet on Tuesday morning.
The CM announced lockdown after meeting with cabinet colleagues and senior government officials on Monday night. The lockdown will come into effect from Wednesday, May 5.
The decision comes in the backdrop of hospitals in Bihar reporting shortage of medical oxygen and medicine such as Remdesivir to treat the growing number of Covid-19 patients over the past few days. On Monday, Patna high court pulled up the state government saying it lacked expert advice, trained manpower, adequate oxygen and life saving drugs to deal with the second wave of the pandemic, which has left hundreds dead and thousands others scrambling for hospital beds in the state.
The state has reported 11,407 positive cases on Monday taking the number of active cases to 107,667. The state capital continued to remain a hotspot, contributing 2,028 of the new Covid-19 infections during the last 24 hours. Patna also accounted for 24 of the 82 Covid-19 deaths in the state during this period.
Bihar’s Covid-19 death toll has reached 2,821 and the number of cases has raced to 5.09 lakh since the detection of the first Covid-19 patient in the state on March 22, last year.
The state government, in the last week of April had prepone the night curfew timing from 9 pm to 6 pm and ordered closure of shops from 4 pm instead of 6 pm.
The government had earlier restricted attendance of staff in offices and semi-government offices to only 25% while schools were closed till may 15. The universities and colleges have already closed down for summer vacation since May 1.
