Bihar conducts record 1 lakh COVID-19 tests; 3,906 fresh cases

Bihar claimed to have conducted a record number of over one lakh COVID-19 tests in the last 24 hours, during which 10 more patients succumbed to the virus and 3,906 fresh cases were reported.

According to a bulletin issued by the state health department, the death toll rose to 484, while the tally soared to 94,459, with 31,567 active cases.

The number of tests conducted since Wednesday was 1.04 lakh, as Bihar crossed the six-digit figure for the first time, and altogether 13.77 lakh samples have been tested.

Patna now accounts for 91 fatalities, the maximum for any of the states 38 districts, followed by Bhagalpur (40), Gaya (31), Rohtas (26), Munger (23), Nalanda (22), Muzaffarpur (19) and Vaishali (18).

The state capital has also reported the highest number of confirmed cases so far (15,381), followed by Bhagalpur (3,855), Muzaffarpur (3,848), Begusarai (3,670), Nalanda (3,495) and Gaya (3,423).

The past 24 hours were also marked by the recovery of 2,439 patients, taking the total number of people who have waged a successful battle against the virus to 62,507. The recovery rate, which had been below 65 per cent till a few days ago, has also looked up and now stands at 66.17 per cent.

Meanwhile, leader of the opposition in state assembly Tejashwi Yadav, who had earlier been accusing the Nitish Kumar government of "deliberately" keeping the testing rate low, appeared unimpressed by the improvement shown by the state in the recent past.

At a press conference he convened here, the RJD leader pointed towards discrepancies in figures quoted by the chief minister himself and his cabinet colleague holding the health portfolio.

"At a video conference meeting with the Prime Minister earlier this week, the Chief Minister had admitted that RTPCR tests were only 10 per cent of the total. When I raised the question in the assembly last week, health minister Mangal Pandey had said it was more than 50 per cent. Now the government must explain who is speaking a lie," Yadav said.

He also alleged that most of the tests at present being conducted in Bihar were rapid antigen, "which even the ICMR accepts, have a very low level of accuracy".

"It is just a screening process, much akin to the examination of a patient through stethoscope. The state government is trying to mislead all by counting rapid antigen tests.

"The state also has 37 True Nat machines which are known to deliver better results that rapid antigen. Yet, only 4,400 tests are being conducted through the method. This shows that the government's priority is not to fight corona but to bamboozle people," Yadav said.

No wonder, Bihar has become the only state in the country where the number of cases reported daily, on an average, was 2,500-3,000 when the testing rate was around 10,000 per day, and it remains almost the same despite a seven-fold increase, he added.