Bihar: CM Nitish Kumar orders door-to-door screening in hotspot districts

Abhay Singh | TNN | Updated: Apr 15, 2020, 06:44 IST

Nitish Kumar, CM Bihar

PATNA: CM Nitish Kumar on Tuesday ordered door-to-door screening of people living in the four hotspot districts from April 16 for detecting suspected coronavirus cases. The first of its kind drive will be launched on the pattern of polio eradication campaign.
Besides, those living in the affected areas adjacent to the four hotspot districts of Siwan, Begusarai, Nalanda and Nawada would also be screened. Further, all the persons living in the 3km radius of the villages from where coronavirus positive cases were reported would also be screened. The villages concerned would be deemed as epicentres of the pandemic.
The CM said door-to-door screening should be done by a two-member team headed by a supervisor, who would prepare the list of screened persons and submit it to the office of block development officer (BDO) concerned. The BDO office, in turn, would prepare the list for ready reference.
Nitish issued the directive after intensive review of the efforts being made to contain coronavirus spread in the state. Chief secretary Deepak Kumar and principal secretary (health) Sanjay Kumar participated in the meeting.
The CM said the tour chart for the door-to-door screening should be prepared before its launch and adequate security care of the screening team should also be taken. Sanjay said around 8,000 villages will also be screened as people had returned from foreign countries in those areas since March 1. “Those places from where 66 positive cases have been reported will be considered as epicentres,” Sanjay said.
No fresh case: Meanwhile, no positive Covid-19 case was reported in Bihar on Tuesday. Total 66 positive cases had been reported in the state till Monday night and 29 of them had recovered and one died.
Nalanda district administration has sealed a locality in Biharsharif after a 40-year-old man tested positive for the virus. He is the third person from Nalanda to have tested positive for Covid-19. He had returned from Dubai on March 21. Nalanda district magistrate Yogendra Singh said the entire locality was sealed and 31 of his close contacts were quarantined. “Door-to-door screening of all the individuals living in his locality has been done and we have not got any symptomatic case,” he added.
He further said they had also sent samples of 68 other people for test on Sunday, including that of a person who had come in contact with a Covid patient and others who came in his contact. But none of them tested positive.
(With inputs from Sheezan Nezami)