Over 150 people test positive for Covid-19 pandemic in Bihar

More than 150 people tested positive for COVID-19 in Bihar, which was on Friday left with an active caseload of 488, a nearly 15-fold rise since the beginning of the month.

According to the health department, Patna district is bearing the brunt of the fresh spike, accounting for 105 of the 158 cases.

A resident of the capital city had on Thursday tested positive for omicron, which became the first confirmed case of the latest variant.

On the brighter side, there has been no casualty in the past few days and the death toll has remained constant at 12,096.

The recovery rate is also a healthy 98.27 per cent. Out of the 7,26,896 people who caught the contagion since the pandemic struck, 7,14,311 have recovered.

The testing rate continues to be high. About 1.75 lakh samples were tested in the last 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has said that the recent spike indicated a "third wave", though did not warrant restrictive measures as of now, chaired a high-level meeting to review the preparedness of the health department.

Besides ordering maintenance of adequate stocks of drugs and oxygen cylinders, he called for introducing a genome sequencing facility in the state, which would facilitate timely detection of omicron cases.

He also expressed satisfaction over the pace of vaccination. Till date, more than 10 crore shots have been administered in the state.