COVID-19: Bihar reports 7th death; 20-day-old boy among 74 fresh cases

The death toll due to the novel coronavirus increased to seven in Bihar on Wednesday after a 56-year-old woman died of the disease, while 74 people, including a 20-day-old boy, tested COVID-19 positive, taking the state's tally to 953, an official said.

The woman and the infant, the youngest coronavirus patient in the state so far, are from Patna district, which has 99 confirmed cases of the infection, according to Principal Secretary for Health Sanjay Kumar.

He said the woman, a resident of Alamganj locality in the city, breathed her last at a hospital following a cardiopulmonary arrest. "She was suffering from multiple ailments like cancer of the gall bladder, acute renal failure, obstructive jaundice, haemorrhoids with active bleeding and sepsis," Kumar said.

She tested COVID-19 positive on May 10, he said, adding that she had no travel and no contact history.

The boy is a resident of Belchhi block in rural Patna, which is emerging as yet another hotspot. Besides the child, a 49-year-old Belchhi resident tested positive on the day. Barh block in the district also accounted for two cases while one person tested positive in Khusroopur.

In Patna city, four people two of them personnel of the Bihar Military Police's 14th Battalion tested positive. The remaining two were residents of Agamkuan and Raja Bazar localities, situated far apart.

Among the BMP personnel was a 27-year-old woman. Altogether 21 personnel of the battalion stationed at the Khajpura locality, which constitutes roughly half of the cases in Patna district, have tested positive till date.

The state home department has issued a notification announcing that it is closing down one of its offices situated inside the Patel Bhawan for sanitisation in view of one of its staff members coming in contact with a COVID-19 positive person. The Bhawan also houses the police headquarters.

Other districts from where cases were reported on Wednesday included Nawada, Begusarai, Bhojpur, Munger, Bhagalpur, Siwan, Banka, Buxar, Supaul, Muzaffarpur, Rohtas, Khagaria, Gopalganj, Madhubani, Lakhisarai, East Champaran and Kaimur.

All 38 districts in the state have reported COVID-19 cases and Munger tops the list with a tally of 122. Significant numbers of cases have also been reported from Rohtas (75), Nalanda (63) and Buxar (59).

Patna district accounts for two deaths, followed by one death each in Munger, Vaishali, East Champaran, Sitamarhi and Rohtas. Barring a 70-year-old victim from Rohtas, all were under 60 years of age and had co-morbidities.

The state reported its first two cases on March 22 and the three-digit-mark was breached four weeks later.

Much of the recent spurt has been attributed to the return of migrants from other parts of the country by special trains running every day. Nearly 1.5 lakh people have come back to Bihar.

The state health department has put the number of migrants testing positive for the novel coronavirus between May 4 and May 12 at 190.