Migrant who died on board train is Bihar's 21st COVID-19 fatality

A migrant worker who died last week on board a Shramik Special train by which he was returning home from Haryana has tested positive for COVID-19, raising Bihar's death toll to 21, an official said here on Sunday.

According to the official, the victim, aged 51 years, hailed from Khagaria district and breathed his last on May 28, shortly before the train reached its destination.

His sample was sent for testing after the body was brought down at the station, the official said.

This is the third COVID-19 fatality reported from Khagaria, the highest for any district in Bihar.

Other districts having reported deaths are Patna, Vaishali, Siwan and Bhojpur and Munger, Bhagalpur, Begusarai, East Champaran, Sitamarhi, Rohtas, Saran, Jehanabad, Nalanda and Samastipur.

The state has so far reported 3,565 cases, of which 206 were reported on Saturday.

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Although the first two cases were reported in Bihar in March, the tally began to rise drastically since the beginning of the month which has accounted for more than 3,000 cases.

The number of patients that have recovered stands at 1,311, while 73,929 samples have been tested so far, according to a release issued by the state health department.

Migrants, who had been arriving by train and other means of transport, including cargo vehicles, make for a major chunk of COVID-19 cases in Bihar.

Since May 3, as many as 2,433 migrants have tested positive for the coronavirus. Majority of them have returned from places like Maharashtra (613), Delhi (534), Gujarat (342), Haryana (213), Uttar Pradesh (124), Rajasthan (118), Telangana (103), West Bengal (101) and Punjab (73). 

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