2 more test COVID-19 positive in Siwan; cases in Bihar increase to 60

Bihar has registered two fresh cases of novel coronavirus from Siwan on Friday, taking the statewide total to 60. With 29 cases, Siwan accounts for nearly half of the total number of people having tested positive for COVID-19 in Bihar.

Patna (Bihar):Two more residents of Bihar's Siwan district, which has emerged as a COVID-19 hotspot with close to 30 cases, tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Friday, taking the statewide total to 60, a top official said.

Principal Secretary, Health, Sanjay Kumar said a 10-year-old girl and a man aged 28 have tested coronavirus positive, and both are members of the family which threw up 16 cases on Thursday, all of them contracting the contagion from a relative with a travel history to Oman.

Chief Secretary Deepak Kumar, alarmed by the spurt in cases, directed the divisional commissioner and the deputy inspector general of Saran to leave for Siwan and camp at Panjwar village in Raghunathpur block that has 18 of the total cases reported since Thursday.

They have been directed to enforce a complete lockdown there.

With 29 cases, Siwan accounts for nearly half of the total number of people having tested positive for COVID-19 in Bihar. Four persons have recovered.

Gaya has five cases, while Begusarai where many had tested positive, is now left with four active cases with the recovery of one person.

Munger and Patna which had reported seven and five cases, respectively have zero active cases. Munger also accounts for the sole COVID 19-related death in Bihar.

According to the data shared by the state health department, the number of samples tested till 10 am on Friday at the four testing facilities in Bihar three at Patna and one at Darbhanga was 5,457.

(PTI Report)