6 new COVID-19 cases reported in Bihar, total reaches 38

Six people tested positive for COVID-19 in Bihar on Tuesday, taking the total number of cases in the state to 38, a top official said.

Principal Secretary, Health, Sanjay Kumar said four people -- all members of the same family in Siwan district and two boys, aged 15 and 16 years, from Begusarai have tested positive for coronavirus.

The Siwan patients include the mother and wife of a COVID-19 patient who returned from the Middle East on March 21, besides two other members of the family, a 26-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman, the principal secretary said.

Not much is known immediately about the boys from Begusarai their travel history is being "ascertained", he added.

However, the number of active cases in the state, where one patient has died, has dropped to 22 on account of as many as 15 people being discharged after recovery, he said.

Among the recovered patients, six are from Munger, five from Patna and four from Siwan, he said.

Of these, three residents of Patna -- a 45-year-old woman and two men in their 20s -- had recovered a week ago.

Earlier, it was stated by the department that five patients each from the three districts had recovered.

Notably, the state had witnessed its sharpest decline in the number of active cases between Sunday and Monday when no one tested positive while as many as six people, including a woman, were discharged from hospitals after they made a full recovery.

Munger, which accounted for the state's only casualty last month, and Patna have no cases now.

Siwan has the highest number of six cases, followed by Gaya (five), Gopalganj and Begusarai (three each), Nalanda (two) and Saran, Lakhisarai and Bhagalpur (one each).

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar issued a statement congratulating all those who have been discharged from hospitals upon full recovery, for their successful battle against what has turned out to be a pandemic.

Among the 12 who have been discharged in the last few days are two women -- a nurse from Patna who is a resident of Munger -- and a 12-year-old boy from the same district.

The Munger woman and the boy were neighbours of the state's lone deceased patient who got admitted to AIIMS, Patna for renal failure and breathed his last before test results confirmed that he was COVID-19 positive.

The nurse worked at a private hospital in the state capital where the deceased was admitted before being referred to the AIIMS here.

Only four of the 12 recovered patients, all men in the age group of 20 to 35 years and hailing from Siwan, had travel histories to Nigeria, Oman, UAE and Bahrain.

The remaining eight had caught the infection upon coming into contact with some other patient, the principal secretary said.

All the six Munger patients underwent treatment at the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital (JLMNCH), Bhagalpur.

The remaining were treated at NMCH, Patna, he said.

The NMCH was declared as a hospital dedicated to COVID-19 last month while the same was done with respect to the JLMNCH, Bhagalpur and ANMCH in Gaya recently, the official added.

According to the state health department, at least 4,062 samples had been tested till Tuesday morning at four facilities in Bihar- RMRI, IGIMS and PMCH in Patna and DMCH in Darbhanga.

No positive case has been reported so far from PMCH where testing of samples commenced on Monday and DMCH where more than 100 samples have been examined till date.

A majority of tests have, however, been conducted at RMRI, an ICMR centre here where a total of 3,257 samples were tested till Tuesday morning.

The state, which has been moderately affected by the calamity and yet been proactive in taking preventive action, has identified as many as 276 buildings across Bihar mostly hotels and hostels, for setting up quarantine centres.

Of these, 218 have already started functioning, said the health department official.