Patna: As the COVID-19 situation continued to be grim in Bihar, the Nitish Kumar-led state government is expected to extend the ongoing lockdown till June 5, said reports. The state has achieved some success in bringing down the number of cases by imposing complete lockdown, which came into force on May 5. Following this, several experts have favoured the extension of the shutdown, claiming that the restrictions imposed in the state have flattened the COVID1-9 curve.

“Lockdown alone can bring down the number of Covid cases considerably, It should therefore continue for at least a month”, Times of India quoted Dr Bimal Karak, former president of the Indian Medical Association’s Bihar unit as saying.

Former superintendent of the Patna Medical College and Hospital, Dr Rajiv Ranjan Prasad, also attributed the decline in cases to the statewide lockdown. “The chain of infections has been broken only due to the lockdown which should again be extended”, he told Times of India.

In the last 24 hours, over 100 fatalities were reported which took the death toll beyond the 4,500-mark. According to the health department, 107 more patients succumbed to the dreaded virus and the toll stands at 4,549. The state logged 4,002 fresh cases, pushing the tally to 6.89 lakh.

Bihar now has 40,691 active cases, a sharp drop since a few weeks ago when it was in excess of one lakh, while 6.44 lakh people have recovered from the virus so far. Recovery rate has also improved to 93.44 per cent, far above the national average.