Centre to send expert team to review grim COVID situation in Bihar, low testing rate

Amid worsening COVID-19 situation in Bihar and the political blame game between ruling NDA and Opposition, Centre has stepped in and has decided to send a special team to assess the condition. Centre has also assured that all necessary help will be provided to the state government. While BJP headquarters in capital Patna has become the COVID hotspot, with more than 70 people infected with the virus, all the districts have reported COVID cases and the state has, till date, tested only 3.58 lakh samples. 

"In view of the rising trend of COVID-19 cases being observed in Bihar, a decision has been taken to depute a multi-disciplinary team to review and coordinate with the State Health Department in managing the COVID-19 outbreak there," the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said. "The Centre shall undertake the visit immediately and coordinate with the state health authorities to review the existing situation and provide necessary support and guidance," the Health Ministry added.

The team will comprise of Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Health Lav Agarwal, Dr S K Singh, Director, National Centre for Disease Control and Dr Neeraj Nischal, Associate Professor, Medicine at AIIMS New Delhi. 

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Letter to Principal Health Secretary 

Moreover, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Health Lav Agarwal has written a letter to Principal Secretary (Health) and Secretary (Health) and has asked them to ensure that at least 80 per cent of the new cases have their close contacts traced and are in quarantine within 72 hours of case confirmation. The letter underlined that containment and buffer zones should be suitably delineated based on the mapping of cases and contacts, and a list of NCC volunteers along with other workforce is available on COVID warriors' portal which can be optimally utilised in containment and surveillance effort.

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The letter stated that overall testing is "very low" in the state vis-a-vis national average, and districts like Patna, Bhagalpur, Muzaffarpur, Nalanda, Begusarai and Munger are reporting higher number of cases while Saharsa, Gaya, Paschim Champaran, Jamui, Arwal, Saran and Khagaria are the emerging hotspots.

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Bihar's COVID tally

The death toll due to COVID-19 in Bihar on Friday mounted to 174 with six fresh fatalities, while the tally reached 23,300, a rise of close to 1,800 cases since the previous day. The health department said the state reported 901 fresh cases in the last 24 hours. Siwan accounted for the highest number of 122 new cases, followed by Nalanda (105), Patna (99), West Champaran (98) and Munger (58). On Thursday, the state's COVID-19 tally stood at 21,558.

While several officials at Chief Minister's residence tested positive, around 20 members at the Bihar Governor, Phagu Chauhan’s house has also tested positive for Covid-19. Moreover, officials at health ministry Mangal Pandey's office also tested positive. Moreover, Bihar BJP state president and Lok Sabha MP from Bettiah, Sanjay Jaiswal, his wife and mother also tested positive for coronavirus.

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