COVID surge leaves Bihar choked; 89 die in 24 hours, active caseload crosses one lakh

PATNA: Bihar on Thursday choked with 89 COVID-19 fatalities and an active caseload of more than one lakh, the first occasion for the pandemic, which began more than a year ago, to assume such alarming proportions in the state.

According to the state health department, 13,089 people tested positive for COVID 19 in Bihar in the last 24 hours, raising the number of active cases to an all time high of 1,00,821.

The state has been reeling under an intense second wave, which has caused its active caseload to rise by more than 50 times in less than a month.

The spurt has also caused the recovery rate to plummet from more than 90 per cent in the beginning of April to 77.27 per cent on the day.

Altogether 2480 people have lost their lives in the state to the dreaded coronavirus, nearly thousand of them dying since April 01.

The total number of people infected has gone up from 2.66 lakh, in the beginning of the month, to 4.54 lakhs on Thursday.

On the brighter side, 3.61 lakh people have also waged successful battles against the dreaded disease.

Testing rate has been cranked up to get an accurate idea of the severity of the outbreak, which has been compounded by factors like people returning from far-off places following lockdowns in many states and those settled elsewhere visiting their villages in droves to attend weddings and other ceremonies like "mundane" (tonsuring of the head) and "upanayan" (wearing of the sacred thread.

The number of samples tested in the last 24 hours stood at 97,972.

The total number of samples tested so far, in the state where the population is about 13 crores, is 2.63 crore.

Plagued by a notoriously inefficient health sector, the state has been hoping against hope to stem the tide through measures like designating government health facilities as "dedicated COVID hospitals" severe curbs on economic activities.

Shops and commercial establishments have been forbidden from doing business beyond 4 PM and the night curfew that has been in place for some time has been now made 12 hours long from 6 P.M.to 6 A.M.

On vaccination front, 87,188 got the jabs Thursday, while 70,53,347 have been inoculated so far.