9 fatalities take Bihar's COVID-19 death toll to 221; tally of cases 33,511

The COVID-19 death toll in Bihar rose to 221 on Friday with nine more people succumbing to the disease in 24 hours, while over 1,800 fresh cases took the state's tally to 33,511, according to a health department bulletin.

Of the fresh deaths, Muzaffarpur and Rohtas reported two, while Patna, Gaya, Nalanda, West Champaran and Supaul registered one fatality each. With Saupal registering it's first COVID-19 death, all 38 districts have had fatalities due to the viral infection.

Patna, the worst-affected district in the state, became the first to have reported over 5,000 COVID-19 cases till date.

The total number of cases reported in Patna so far stood at 5,347, while the state's tally soared to 33,511, the bulletin stated. Patna district accounts for 1,869 active cases, more than 10 per cent of the state's aggregate of 10,458.

Patna also accounts for the highest number of 36 coronavirus fatalities, followed by Bhagalpur with 19 deaths, Gaya 14, Muzaffarpur and Rohtas 11 each and Darbhanga 10.

Other severely-hit districts include Bhagalpur with 2,023 case, Muzaffarpur 1,514, Gaya 1,336, Rohtas 1,257, Begusarai 1,221, Siwan 1,204 and Nalanda 1,200.

However, with 1,873 patients recuperating from the disease in 24 hours the state's COVID-19 recovery rate reached 68.13 per cent, an improvement of over two percentage points from that on Thursday.

The health department reiterated that the spike witnessed in the last few weeks, which has led to clamping of another lockdown in the state since July 16, could also be attributed in part to an improved testing rate which now stands at more than 10,000 samples being examined daily.

So far, more than 4.29 lakh samples have been tested for COVID-19, and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has instructed the officials to raise the testing rate to 20,000 per day.