Bihar's COVID-19 tally rises by over 2,500; death toll 232

Bihar's COVID-19 tally reached 36,314 on Saturday with over 2,500 more people testing positive for the disease in a day, while 11 new fatalities took the death toll to 232, the state health department said.

The department, however, underscored that among the cases registered on Saturday, 1,782 were from tests which were conducted on or before July 23 and 1,021 were reported in the last 24 hours.

Of the 11 deaths that occurred in the last 24 hours, three were from Munger, two each from Araria and Samastipur and one each from Bhagalpur, Nalanda, Rohtas and West Champaran.

Patna district has reported the maximum number of 36 deaths, followed by Bhagalpur 20, Gaya 14, Rohtas 12, Muzaffarpur 11, and Nalanda and Darbhanga 10 each.

Patna's COVID-19 tally has risen by more than 500 in a day. The district now has 2,165 active cases, just under 20 per cent of the statewide total.

It also accounted for the highest number of confirmed cases at 5,894, followed by Bhagalpur 2,172, Muzaffarpur 1,568, Nalanda and Rohtas 1,425 each, Begusarai 1,334 and Siwan 1,219.

Altogether, 24,520 people have recovered from the viral infection till date, with 1,688 of them in the last 24 hours, pushing the state's recovery rate to 67.52 per cent. Bihar now has 11,562 active cases.

In the last 24 hours, 12,461 samples were tested for COVID-19, the highest in a day. Efforts were on to meet the 20,000 tests daily target set by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar earlier this week.

Altogether, 4.42 lakh tests have been conducted till date in the state where kits have now been made available across all 38 districts to facilitate aggressive testing and contact tracing to contain the spurt in cases which has led to a fortnight-long lockdown, in force since July 16.