Bihar reports 15th Covid death, tally tops 3K

Bihar reported 15th death of Covid-19 infected patient at Jehanabad on Tuesday even as the cases crossed the 3,000 mark.

Health officials said a migrant worker from East Champaran, infected by coronavirus, died at Jehanabad on May 23. His medical report, confirming the passenger had contracted coronavirus infection, came on May 26.

“The deceased came by a Shramik Special and was unwell. When he did not disembark at Jehanabad station, a magistrate on duty arranged to get him out of the train and rushed the passenger to a government hospital in the district, where the doctors declared him brought dead. His sample was taken and sent for test, the report of which came on May 26,” Bihar health secretary Lokesh Kumar Singh said during a media briefing on Wednesday.

Singh, however, did not disclose further details.

On Wednesday, the count of positive patients increased to 3036 with detection of 68 new cases. The highest number of infected patients was found in Araria district.

The age of infected persons ranged 13 to 65 years.

While 14 cases were found in Araria, Madhepura reported 9, Saran and Darbhanga four each, Saharsa three, Begusarai two, besides Vaishali and Kishanganj one each.

Singh said migrant workers accounted for two-third of the total cases in Bihar. Around 2,072 migrant workers of the over 18 lakh who had returned to the state after May 3, had so far tested positive for the virus.

He said the percentage of Covid-19 positive cases, as compared to those tested, had gone up to 4.4%. Bihar had so far tested 68,292 samples of which 3,010 had tested positive for the virus till Wednesday afternoon.

He said Bihar’s average capacity was to conduct around 3,300 tests every day. The department was making every effort to increase its testing capacity so that it was able to isolate and break the chain of coronavirus. Singh said while TrueNat machines had been installed in a few districts, they were in the process of being installed in some other districts as well.

“We will very soon be able to achieve testing of 10,000 samples a day that we have been told to do by the government,” he said.