Nitish Kumar directs officials to maintain high COVID testing till vaccination is completed in Bihar

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday directed health officials to maintain high level of testing for COVID-19 till iculation of entire population of state was completed.

Reviewing functioning of health department, chief minister instructed officials that vaccination campaign should be accomplished with all alertness on lines of 'pulse polio drive' which saw state getting rid of polio disease.

With state erly waiting for arrival of a COVID vaccine after successful trials, Kumar ordered District Magistrates to monitor future vaccination drive on a daily basis, an official release said.

state cabinet Tuesday approved iculation of entire population of Bihar for COVID-19 free of cost on availability of vaccine.

Free corona vaccine in state was promised by BJP in its manifesto for recent assembly elections which was released here by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and state government has given an minstrative sanction to it.

BJP is a partner in state government. Bihar has been carrying lakh plus testing for coronavirus on a daily basis for months which has helped in timely treatment of infected resulting in high percent of recovery of COVID patients.

state saw 1,22,444 testing in past 24 hours on Friday, according to health bulletin. Bihar has carried a total of over 1.68 crore testing for virus so far. Recovery rate in state was 97.40 Friday, more than national aver of around 94 per cent.

As per updated health bulletin, re are a total of 2,45,933 coronavirus cases in Bihar. dely disease has claimed 1341 casautlies in state so far.

chief minister while directing officials to brace up for vaccination programme told m that manpower distribution for purpose should be done in a manner that or health services are t hampered. Besides, he also asked m to make proper and equate arrangements for stor of vaccines.

CM instructed that vaccination should be carried first for people belonging to vulnerable groups - such as health care workers, frontline workers, priority -group, peoples representatives, people associated with government work, contractual staff, shopkeepers and businessmen.

Health minister Mangal Pandey, Chief Secretary Deepak Kumar, Health Departments Principal Secretary Pratyaya Amrit, CMs Principal Secretary Chanchal Kumar, CMs Secretaries Manish Kumar Verma, Anupam Kumar and a host of or senior officials attended meeting.

Reviewing work of health department under "Aatmnirbhar Bihar Ke Saat Nischay Part-II" programme, Kumar directed officials to make arrangements for free treatment of children born with hole in ir hearts under "Baal Hriday Yojana".

He stated that treatment of heart diseases should be improved furr at Indira Gandhi Institute of Cardiology (IGIC) and Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS), Patna. All government and private medical colleges be brought under Bihar Universities of Health Sciences, CM ded.

Stating that government is doing its best to provide better health care facilities in vills, Kumar said primary health centres, community health centres, sub-divisional hospitals and district hospitals should be connected through telemedicine in order to provide people medical consultation.

Kumar asked officials concerned to ensure that health sub-centres should be run in a better and regular manner so that people can get benefits of health services.

He also asked to furr expand ambulance services so that patients can get facility on time.

Earlier, Amrit gave a detailed presentation on various ongoing works of department that included update on coronavirus and measures taken to curb its spre and supply chain system on COVID-19 vaccines. 

(Photo Credit: Twitter/NitishKumar)