2-year-old girl among 10 COVID-19 cases in Bihar; total 80 cases in state

Bihar saw a spurt in fresh cases of COVID-19 on Thursday with 10 people including a two-year-old girl testing positive for the dreaded novel coronavirus, taking the total count of positive cases to 80 in the state, a top official said.

The child was among six persons from Munger district's Jamalpur sub division who tested positive. All of them were related to a 60-year-old patient, health department's principal secretary Sanjay Kumar said.

In addition to the girl, the Munger cases include three women aged between 20 and 55 years and two men, aged 38 and 40 years, he added.

With a total of 14 cases, including six recoveries and a death, Munger is now the second worst-affected district of the state after Siwan where 29 people have tested positive so far.

Two men, aged 35 and 67 years, and hailing from Buxar district, have also tested positive, the principal secretary said.

Buxar district magistrate Aman Samir said, "The two had on March 30 returned home after taking part in a Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Asansol, West Bengal where they are believed to have picked up the contagion from infected delegates".

Notably, the Islamic organisation, which has its headquarters at Nizamuddin in Delhi, has been blamed for a large number of coronavirus cases across the country.

The Jamaat had held a congregation at its headquarters in the first half of March, which was attended by hundreds of participants from abroad and some of them were suspected to have carried the infection.

Besides, a 60-year-old man in Patna, who came in touch with a COVID-19 patient with travel history to Dubai, and a 35-year-old man from Vaishali district had tested positive late on Wednesday night.

The Vaishali patient has no travel history and is admitted to AIIMS, Patna for multiple illnesses. His samples were sent for testing when he developed respiratory distress, the official said.

After he tested positive, his village in Raghopur block of Vaishali and a private hospital in the state capital where he underwent treatment before being taken to AIIMS have been sealed by the respective district administrations.

Those with whom he has been known to come in contact have been kept in isolation wards, the official added.

Meanwhile, the state government embarked on an extensive door-to-door screening programme on the lines of the pulse polio campaign of the 1980s.

The screening programme was reviewed on its inaugural day at a high-level meeting chaired here by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Out of 38 districts in the state, 13 have reported COVID-19 cases. Gopalganj, which had reported three cases and Lakhisarai, Bhagalpur and Saran accounting for one case each are now left with no active case.

The health department's principal secretary said Bihar's recovery rate was better than all states except Kerala and Chhattisgarh and its mortality rate was significantly lower than the national average.

He also underscored "every day, on an average, 1,900 people die in Bihar in natural course. Let's not confuse all deaths with COVID -19. We need to be careful and vigilant".