Bihar: Health dept on toes as 61 test positive for Covid in 48 hours

PATNA: Covid-19 cases are on the rise in the state and it was after 10 months that over 40 cases were reported in a day on Saturday when 44 people tested positive for the virus. On Sunday, 17 new Covid cases were registered in the state, including eight in Patna.
Among those who tested positive for Covid in the last couple of days included minister Leshi Singh and chief minister's principal secretary Deepak Kumar.
Leshi's Covid test report came positive on Saturday and she isolated herself at her Patna residence. The minister had recently attended the wedding reception of Bihar assembly Speaker Vijay Sinha's son where large number of other dignitaries were also present. A health department official said Deepak Kumar and two other staff of the CM House have also tested positive for Covid-19. However, they all have mild symptoms.
Seeing the increase in Covid cases in the state, the health department has planned to come up with certain restrictions. "There will be restriction on the number of people visiting government offices and biometric attendance system will be suspended for a few days. Use of mask will be mandatory at workplaces and market areas," said an official of the health department.
"Emphasis will be on Covid test. The contacts of those testing positive for Covid will also be tested. Till now, we were mainly doing random test," the official added.
As per the health department, 44 new Covid cases were registered on Saturday with Patna alone accounting for 27. Gaya had reported six new cases and West Champaran four. Begusarai, Bhagalpur, Darbhanga, Khagaria, Muzaffarpur, Nalanda and Saran had reported one case each on Saturday.
Apart from Patna where eight cases were recorded on Sunday, Saharsa registered two cases and Aurangabad, Kaimur, Rohtas, Samastipur, Sitamarhi and Siwan one each. The sample of one person from outside the state also tested positive for Covid on Sunday.
The 17 new fresh cases have taken the state's active caseload to 115, including 72 in Patna.