46 people test positive for COVID-19 in Bihar, total rises to999

At least 46 people tested positive for COVID-19 in Bihar on Thursday, taking the states tally to 999, short of the four-digit-mark by a whisker, a senior official said.

There were two females, one of them a three-year-old girl from Lakhisarai district, among those testing positive, according to Principal Secretary, Health, Sanjay Kumar. Six cases were detected in Lakhisarai.

In Jehanabad district, a 19-year-old woman was among five people, including a six-year-old boy, who tested positive, he said.

Purnea reported eight cases and District Magistrate Rahul Kumar said they were all migrant workers from Rupauli block who were among 55 people who had come back from Delhi on a truck on May 3.

One of them had tested positive on May 5. Those testing positive are shifted from quarantine centres to isolation wards at designated hospitals, the DM said.

Six people tested positive in Khagaria and three each did so in Nalanda, Banka and Muzaffarpur.

The Muzaffarpur district administration said all the three people testing positive were migrant workers, one of whom returned from Noida by road while the remaining two came from Mumbai on a train.

Rohtas, Vaishali, Sheikhpura and Supaul reported two cases each, while Bhojpur, Kishanganj, Nawada and Bhagalpur reported single cases, the principal secretary said.

All 38 districts in the state have been affected by the coronavirus which has claimed seven lives till date.

Munger has reported the highest number of 122 cases, followed by Patna (99), Rohtas (77), Nalanda (67) and Buxar (59).

Altogether 411 people have been discharged from hospitals after recovering from the infection.

The number of samples tested till date is 40,782 and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has called upon the health department to augment its capacity in view of the heavy influx of migrant workers in the last fortnight to which a steep hike in the incidence during the period has been attributed.