7,870 test +ve, 34 die as Covid spread turns severe in state

PATNA: The Covid situation turned grim on Saturday as the state recorded its highest number of single-day cases with 7,870 more people testing positive and 34 dying of the virus during the past 24 hours. The last 50,000 cases have been added in just 17 days, making it the fastest spread since the onset of the pandemic last year.
Patna district alone contributed around 24.1% to the new cases in the state as 1,898 people tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours, taking the overall infection caseload to 70,204 in the district.The number of active cases climbed to 12,118 on Saturday from 11,155 on Friday. So far, 57,584 people have recovered from the Covid infection in Patna.
Other districts, which reported maximum number of Covid-19 cases after Patna were Gaya (610), Muzaffarpur (541), Begusarai (326), Bhagalpur (322), West Champaran (269), Saran (256), Munger (255), Saharsa (247), Auranagabad (215) and Siwan and Rohtas with 188 cases each. These districts altogether contributed to 43% of the fresh cases in Bihar.
The state positivity rate has jumped to 7.8% from 1.3% in just a fortnight. The overall recovery rate declined further by 1.54%, from 88.57% on Friday to 86.93% on Saturday. The state’s recovery rate has dropped 0.3% lower than the national average of 87.23%.
The fresh cases took the cumulative infection tally in the state to 3,15,427 and death toll to 1,722 in the last 24 hours, a per the data shared by the health department on Saturday. The new cases pushed the active cases up to 18% when compared to Friday’s 33,466. There were 39,497 active cases in the state.
As far as fresh causalities were concerned, Patna again topped with 12 deaths, taking the overall district toll up to 502, followed by Bhagalpur (4), Darbhanga (3), Nalanda, Siwan, Bhojpur, Munger, Muzaffarpur and Supaul two each and Jehanabad, Khagaria and Sheohar one each.
Unofficially, 12 more people died at Covid hospitals in the state capital on Saturday during treatment. Of them, seven patients died at PMCH, three at NMCH and two at AIIMS-Patna.
With 34 new admissions, the number of Covid patients at AIIMS-P increased to 187. NMCH had 32 new admissions, taking the number of Covid patints there to 178. Seven patients were discharged from NMCH in the last 24 hours.
A total of 1,804 patients were discharged from different hospitals after recovering from the infection, taking the number of cured people to 2,74,207 in the state.