With 138 new Covid-19 cases, Bihar’s count rises to 7,178; death toll at 49

The recovery rate of patients has gone up to 71% in Bihar, said Bihar health secretary Lokesh Kumar Singh during the media briefing on Friday.

Bihar reported 138 new Covid-19 cases on Friday and two deaths from the disease were recorded during the past 24 hours, taking the total number of those infected with coronavirus in the state to 7,178 while the death toll climbed to 49.

A worker sanitising travellers’ luggage at Patna Junction railway station, on Friday June 19, 2020. (Santosh  Kumar / HT Photo)

A 58-year-old male from Nautan block of Saran district died at the Nalanda Medical College Hospital (NMCH), a dedicated Covid special facility in the state capital Patna, on Friday. Another male, a 22-year-old from Nawada town died at the Patna Medical College Hospital late Thursday evening.

“The 58-year-old Saran resident had a travel history of Delhi and showed symptoms of breathlessness,” said Dr Mukul Kumar Singh, nodal officer of coronavirus at the NMCH.

“His son and he had come to our facility directly from the railway station after getting down from a Shramik Special train on June 17. He did not have fever or cough, but was uneasy and complained of breathlessness. He tested positive for the virus the same day. His condition, however, deteriorated rapidly and he died today,” Dr Singh added.

However, health officials were perplexed over the death of the 22-year-old from Nawada, as he neither had a travel history nor did he claim to have come in contact with any Covid-19 patients, said officials.

“Four people have tested positive on the TrueNat machine as part of the contact tracing of the victim. It is quite possible that the victim himself had come in contact with an unsuspecting Covid-19 positive patient in his family or his close acquaintance. We are trying to ascertain the infection trail,” said Nawada civil surgeon Dr Wimal Prasad Singh.

The government, in its customary media briefing Friday evening, reported five deaths, including two from Darbhanga and one from Nalanda, besides one each from Nawada and Saran.

That was because the health department, which disseminates Covid-19 information to the public through its Twitter handle @BiharHealthDept, did not update the death toll on Thursday evening even though it had updated information about rise in the number of positive cases. Three of the five deaths, the government announced Friday, were reported around 5pm on Thursday itself.

Meanwhile, the recovery rate of patients has gone up to 71% in Bihar, said Bihar health secretary Lokesh Kumar Singh during the media briefing on Friday.

“Of the total 7,178 Covid-19 cases in the state so far, 5,098 had recovered, including 137 who were discharged from different health facilities during the last 24 hours,” he added.

Bihar had tested a maximum of 5,978 samples on Thursday, taking the total number of tests to 1,45,562 so far, said Singh.

He further said that 4,736 migrant workers, who returned to the state after May 3, had tested positive for the virus. This meant that 66% of the total Covid-19 cases in the state were attributed to the migrants. The percentage was as high as 72% till recently.

Though the number of migrant workers coming to the state has gone down, 18 more Shramik Special trains were expected to reach the state from different parts of the country by June 22, said Anupam Kumar, secretary, information and public relations department, Bihar.

Earlier in the day, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar inspected the Covid-19 isolation centre at the Patliputra Sports Complex at Kankerbagh and gave necessary instructions to officials.