Covid cases top 1,000 in Bihar, 100 in capital; migrants account for 44%

The incoming migrants contributed to a steady spurt in coronavirus, adding to 44% of Bihar’s 1,018 cases, with seven deaths so far, after 19 people tested positive

The incoming migrants contributed to a steady spurt in coronavirus, adding to 44% of Bihar’s 1,018 cases, with seven deaths so far, after 19 people tested positive for Sars-CoV-2 on Friday.

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Covid-19 cases in Patna touched 100 on a day when Bihar breached the 1,000-mark barrier since the first three Sars-CoV-2 cases were reported in the state on March 22.

Khagaria and Siwan reported five cases each, followed by Vaishali, Jamui, Madhubani (2 each) and Nawada, Lakhisarai and Patna (1 each).

Thirty-two among those infected by the virus so far in the state were policemen, of which 22 belonged to the Bihar Military Police (BMP), while 10 others were from the district police constabulary, said Jitendra Kumar, additional director general of police (headquarters) during a joint media briefing.

“The district cops, who tested positive, had returned from leave. We kept them at quarantine centres and tested them before being allowed to rejoin duty, which is when they tested positive. Eight of the 10 cops had recovered,” he added.

“The number of cases of coronavirus has gone up after May 3, when 391 workers tested Covid-19 positive among the total 449 migrants infected by the virus so far,” said health secretary Lokesh Kumar Singh.

Of the 391 migrants testing positive, 122 had come from New Delhi, 105 from Gujarat, 77 from Maharashtra, 23 from West Bengal and 21 from Haryana, besides some other states, he added.

As on date, 2.72 lakh migrant workers were staying at 5,162 block quarantine camps, after 2,46,160 migrant workers had reached Bihar by 195 Shramik Special trains till May 14, said Anupam Kumar, secretary, information and public relations department.

He said 36 such trains were scheduled to reach Bihar on Friday and 40 others were planned for Saturday.

The chief minister had asked his officials to arrange for expeditious transportation of as many migrants from the state who wanted to return because their risk of contracting the infection was higher in event of delay in returning to the state.

Kumar said a “senior officer” had tested positive for the virus when he went to a quarantine camp to address an issue, involving some people, who had tested positive and were residing there.

He, however, refused to disclose the officer’s rank.

Meanwhile, the health department was making concerted efforts to scale up Covid-19 testing in the state.

Singh said testing using TrueNat machines would commence in the next 24-48 hours at the Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College in Gaya, the Vardhaman Institute of Medical Sciences, Pawapuri, and at Siwan.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had on May 7 directed officials to procure these machines and install them at all district hospitals for speedy coronavirus test results. He has also directed officials to ramp up state’s Covid-19 testing capacity.

The Indian Council of Medical Research had recently okayed the diagnostic machines, generally used for testing drug-resistant tuberculosis, in an effort to bolster testing capacity.

At the moment, Bihar is testing around 1,900 to 2,000 samples on an average daily. Kumar wants it to be scaled up to 10,000.

With 27 Covid-19 patients having been cured in the last 24 hours, the total number of recoveries in the state went up to 438.

As of Friday, Munger reported 122 cases, followed by Patna (100), Rohtas (77), Nalanda (66), Buxar (59), Begusarai (47), Siwan (43), Kaimur (33), Khagaria (41), Bhagalpur (33), Madhubani (32), Bhojpur (29), Jehanabad, Nawada (26 each), West Champaran (25), Gopalganj (24), Aurangabad, Muzaffarpur (18 each), Darbhanga (16 each), East Champaran (15), Banka (14), Lakhisarai (13) Katihar, Arwal, Purnea, Sheikhpura (12 each), Samastipur, (11), Kishanganj, Saran, Saharsa (10 each), Madhepura, Supaul (9 each), Gaya, Vaishali (8 each), Sitamarhi (7), Araria (4) and Sheohar, Jamui (3 each) till the time of going to the press.