COVID-19: Sharp rise in deaths among Bihar's journalists, teachers and bureaucrats

PATNA: April has seen a dramatic rise in the number of COVID deaths among Bihar's police personnel, doctors, teachers, professors, bureaucrats, journalists, and public employees. 

According to official sources, as many as 13 police personnel, 75 school teachers and professors, 14 doctors, 3 journalists, and half a dozen officers of both the Indian Administrative Services and the Bihar Administrative Services (BAS) have lost their lives to the deadly virus.

More than 202 police personnel have tested positive this month. What's concerning is that about 90% of them were administered both doses of the COVID vaccine. Around 600 healthcare professionals, including doctors and paramedic staff, have tested positive. Fourteen of them have died, and almost all of them had taken the second dose of the vaccine.

Many senior IAS officers Vijay Ranjan (Director of Panchayat Raj), Ravi Shanker Chaudhary  (Additional secretary in health department ) and Pankaj Kumar Singh-(Director of Industries Department) were among those who died. More civil servants have tested positive and are under quarantine

As per the data, 60 teachers and 15 professors have died. In the Nalanda district, the District Education Officer (DEO) and 15 teachers died in the last two weeks. Alarmed over the deaths, the Nalanda teachers union has written a letter to the Human Rights Commission seeking its intervention to get the schools closed.