COVID-19 death toll reaches 97 in Bihar; total number of cases at 12,140

The COVID-19 death toll in Bihar inched towards the three-digit-mark on Monday when the state health department confirmed seven more casualties, even as the total number of cases reached 12,140 with 276 fresh infections.

According to a statement issued by the department, the death toll has risen to 97 with fatalities being reported from Samastipur and Darbhanga (two each) and Bhagalpur, Muzaffarpur and Gaya (one each).

Details like age, sex, co-morbidities and the time of deaths were not shared.

Patna district has reported the highest number of 12 deaths so far, followed by Darbhanga (seven), Samastipur (six) and Bhagalpur, Muzaffarpur, Nalanda, East Champaran, Rohtas and Saran (five each).

Meanwhile, as many as 276 fresh cases were also reported in the state, Patna district accounting for the maximum number of these (55), followed by Darbhanga (27), Bhagalpur (25) and East Champaran and Nalanda (15 each).

COVID-19 cases have been reported from all the 38 districts in the state. Patna tops the list with a tally of 1,058, followed by Bhagalpur (616), Begusarai (528), Madhubani (511), Muzaffarpur (496) and Siwan (490).

Sheohar and Jamui have the lowest tallies 101 and 108 respectively. Altogether 9,014 people have been discharged after recovering from the viral infection till date, the department said, adding that the recovery rate was 74.25 per cent, higher than the national average.

However, in a statement, Congress MLC and AICC media panelist Prem Chandra Mishra alleged that the statistics were misleading since Bihar had a very poor testing rate.

Referring to a tweet from Niti Ayog CEO Amitabh Kant, Mishra said the testing ratio was only 2,197 per one million of population in Bihar as against 32,863 in Delhi, 18,597 in Andhra Pradesh, 16,663 in Tamil Nadu and 13,471 in Assam.

"The number of people infected with coronavirus would have been far more if the state government had improved its testing rate," Mishra said, urging Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to consider imposing a state-wide lockdown.

"People of the state have been left to fend for themselves in the face of the pandemic in the name of unlock 1.0 and unlock 2.0," Mishra alleged. According to data released by the state government, 6,213 samples were tested in the last 24 hours while the total number of tests conducted so far was 2.64 lakh.