COVID-19 death toll in Bihar reaches 212
Patna: The death toll due to COVID-19 in Bihar on Thursday reached 212 with four fatalities, according to the state's health department bulletin.
Two deaths each were reported from Patna and Rohtas districts, though details of the deceased were not known, it said.
Patna now accounts for 35 casualties, the highest for any district in the state, followed by Bhagalpur (19), Gaya (13), Darbhanga (10), and Muzaffarpur, East Champaran, Rohtas and Saran (10 each).
The infection tally, meanwhile, rose to 31,691, an increase of more than 1600 since the previous day.
State BJP chief Sanjay Jaiswal, who is also a doctor by profession, visited a COVID-19 ward in his parliamentary constituency Bettiah in West Champaran district, soon after recovering from the infection himself.
Jaiswal had tested positive for COVID-19 on July 15 and was suspected to have caught the contagion at the state headquarters in Patna, which emerged as a hotspot of sorts when 24 people, including party leaders who regularly visited the premises and other staff members engaged in running errands, tested positive for the pathogen.
Jaiswal shared photographs of himself, dressed in Hazmat suit, at the Bettiah hospital on his Facebook page.
Out of the total 31,691 cases in the state, while 717 cases were termed by the department as "new" another 908 were acknowledged as among those for which reports came out on July 21 or before but compilation of which got delayed.
Patna is also at the top in terms of district-wise tallies with 4,786 confirmed cases so far, followed by Bhagalpur (1942), Muzaffarpur (1415), Gaya (1189), Nalanda (1179), Siwan (1160), Rohtas (1156) and Begusarai (1143).
The number of active cases reached 10,520, more than one-tenth of these (1712) in Patna alone.
Altogether 20,959 COVID 19 patients have made full recovery in the state which boasts of a recovery rate of 66.14 per cent.
The number of samples tested in the last 24 hours was 10,120 and instructions have been issued by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to raise the testing rate to about 20,000 per day.
The state's Secretary for Information and Public Relations Department Anupam Kumar told a press conference that in view of the recent spike, efforts were being made to raise the number of beds at COVID-19 treatment facilities across the state by 5,000. At present, 8,000 beds were available at such hospitals.
He also said instructions have been given to district magistrates that they ensure patients were not charged unreasonably by private hospitals and nursing homes, which may have been authorised to treat positive patients.
He also said a strong note has been taken of complaints about test reports coming after much delay and orders have been issued that these were available within 24 hours of collection of samples.
In keeping with the chief minister's directions for raising testing capacity, all sub division level government hospitals were being equipped with antigen testing facilities and one lakh kits were being made available so that those wanting to get themselves examined could do so "on demand", the IPRD secretary said.
In Motihari, seven inmates of the central jail tested positive, triggering panic among other prisoners and authorities.
According to jail superintendent Vidhu Kumar, those who have tested positive were among 12 inmates who had been admitted to the Sadar hospital some time ago upon developing symptoms.
He said quarantine arrangements are in place at the jail, where at present 2200 prisoners are housed and which routinely receives those rounded up in Motihari, Bettiah and Bagaha police districts.
"Every new arrival is supposed to spend a week at one of the four quarantine centers set up in the outer precincts. After being let inside the main jail premises, they are made to undergo another week of mandatory quarantine at one of the three facilities inside," the superintendent added.
In Patna, state health minister Mangal Pandey visited the NMCH - the first dedicated COVID hospital in Bihar - to take stock of the situation.
The hospital has been in news because of video footage, dismissed by Pandey as "fake", of patients struggling because of lack of paramedics and often having to make do with dead bodies on adjoining beds for hours, until these were disposed of.
A three-member central team, which visited the hospital earlier this week, is said to have frowned upon the mismanagement at the facility following which its superintendent was replaced.
Chaos appears to prevail at the hospital where an SUV was spotted by a section of the media, occupied by grieving family members of a deceased who died inside the car waiting to get admission into NMCH where he was brought after he developed breathing trouble.
"Our health manager has been asked to look into the matter. The family members will be allowed to take the body away after a death certificate is issued," the hospital's new superintendent Binod Kumar Singh said.
"But before that we must collect his samples since it is crucial to know whether he was COVID 19 positive or not," he said.
