Bihar reports 8th death; Patna witnesses biggest single-day spike with 57 COVID-19 cases

Bihar reported its eighth death due to coronavirus on Sunday with the state capital alone witnessing 57 out of 106 fresh COVID cases, thus making it the number one district in terms of positive cases in the state.

The tally of positive COVID-19 cases has gone up to 1,284 in the state while Patna topped the list with positive cases at 163, pushing Munger at the second spot with 125 cases.

This is the second highest single-day spike in the number of cases of 106 after 118 people had tested positive on May 12 on a single day.

A 55-year-old diabetic migrant worker, who fell ill after returning to Bihar from Mumbai and died before his sample was collected and tested positive for the deadly virus, is the state's eighth COVID-19 fatality.

The deceased died in the wee hours of May 15, after suffering "cardio pulmonary arrest", at a hospital in Khagaria district, Health Department’s Principal Secretary Sanjay Kumar said.

He had come along with wife and a grandson from Mumbai on May 13 by a 'Shramik Special' train that pulled up at Saharsa.

They took a bus ride to reach Khagaria by the evening, but the migrant worker fell ill the next day, following which he was rushed from a quarantine centre by the medical team on duty to a referral hospital.

The deceased's sample, along with that of his wife aged 45 years, were collected after his death, he said.

This is the second instance in Bihar of test report confirming that a person was COVID-19 positive after his death.

Two months ago, a resident of Munger district admitted to AIIMS, Patna for renal failure had his samples collected when he was alive, but he died away on March 21 before his test reports came out and his body was sent back to his native district. Besides, seven others who have died due to the disease are two from Patna, one each from Rohtas, Munger, Vaishali, East Champaran and Sitamarhi.

The seven COVID-19 positive people, who died during treatment, were suffering from serious illness.

Out of the 73 fresh positive cases, Patna witnessed 57 cases, including 18 women. Majority of them (57) are migrant labourers who have come from Delhi and Gujarat and are living in quarantine centres, a release issued by Patna district administration said.

Of 57 patients, a four-year-old baby girl, 10 years and 15-years-old girl, besides boys of 12 years, 13, 10, 13 and 14 were among 16 people from Barh in Patna district who tested positive for COVID-19.

Besides, 21 people - both men and women - who tested positive were from BMP-14, Khajpura, which constitutes quite a good number of cases in Patna district.

A 38-year-old woman from Agamkuan in the state capital was tested positive, while two women, aged 38 and 17, hailing from RPS More area of Patna were also tested positive.

Another 28-year-old woman from Patel Nagar area of the city tested positive for COVID-19. Twelve people from Athmalgola in Patna district also tested positive.

A total of 14 people, including a six-year-old baby girl, were tested positive from Rohtas district.

Besides, one each patient from Nalanda and Saran tested positive for coronavirus.

Sixteen people from Madhubani, five from Muzaffarpur, three each from East Champaran, Arwal, Buxar, two from Kaimur and one person from Sitamarhi were tested positive, Kumar said.

Majority of these cases from Madhubani and Muzaffarpur are migrant labourers who have come from other states.

Of the total 1,284 positive cases in 38 districts, eight people have died while 475 have recovered, with the state having 801 active cases.

The number of migrants testing positive for COVID-19 stood at 504 out of 1,251 cases, with most of them returning from Delhi, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

With 163 cases, Patna topped the list of positive cases for the first time since the state reported its first positive case on March 21 last. Munger, which remained as number one in terms of positive cases for quite long time, now stood second at 125. The other badly affected districts include Rohtas (89), Madhubani (69), Nalanda (66), Buxar (62), Madhubani (69), Begusarai (53), Siwan (45), Khagaria (44). Bhagalpur (40), Nawada (36), Kaimur (36).

The number of samples tested so far, at seven facilities in Patna, Bhagalpur, Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga, was 45,790.