COVID-19: Man with travel history to Delhi tests positive in Bihar, total count reaches 39

A 38-year-old man with a travel history to Delhi tested positive for COVID-19 in Bihar on Wednesday, taking the total number of coronavirus cases in the state to 39, an official said.

State epidemiologist Ragini Mishra said the patient hailed from Nawada, becoming the first person from the central Bihar district to test positive.

Principal Secretary, Health, Sanjay Kumar said the patient had "a travel history to Delhi" and more details were sought about which places he visited in the national capital and the people whom he came in contact with.

The national capital has emerged as a major COVID-19 hotspot in the country in the aftermath of a large number of attendees to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Nizamuddin testing positive.

Moreover, a large number of migrant workers returned from the city after the lockdown, much to the chagrin of the Nitish Kumar government in the state, which squarely blamed Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party for the mess.

Earlier, addressing a press conference, Information and Public Relations Department secretary Anupam Kumar said the total number of samples tested till Wednesday afternoon was at 4,699.

The state had witnessed a spike in COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, when as many as six persons tested positive for the dreaded coronavirus.

Four of them hailed from the same family in Siwan district and were related to a COVID-19 patient, who had returned from the Middle East on March 21.

Two teenaged boys from Begusarai had also tested positive.

According to sources in the district administration, 13 family members of the two boys not related to each other but hailing from the same village have been quarantined after they tested positive.

The state now has 23 active cases while one patient died and 15 recovered.

Siwan is left with the highest number of six active cases, followed by Gaya (five), Gopalganj and Begusarai (three each), Nalanda (2) and Saran, Lakhisarai, Bhagalpur and Nawada (one each).

The health department's principal secretary also tweeted that a consignment of "15,000 testing kits has been airlifted from Singapore, for Bihar," and profusely thanked the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for the initiative.