Three more doctors die, Bihar Covid-19 tally rises to 48,000

PATNA: Three more coronavirus infected doctors died on Thursday at AIIMS-Patna, taking the death toll of doctors to 12 in Bihar. Five Patna residents, too, died of Covid-19 on Thursday. The state health department reported 12 official deaths, taking the toll to 285 so far.
On a day the state ramped up its testing to 20,000 samples, as directed by CM Nitish Kumar, the total coronavirus case count reached 48,001 with 2,082 new cases reported on Thursday.And with 31,673 recoveries, active cases stand at 16,041.
State capital Patna saw the maximum Covid-19 cases registered on Thursday with 410 people testing positive. The tally for Patna has now reached 8,229. But with 4,846 recoveries and 41 official deaths, active cases in Patna stand at 3,342.
Despite the number of tests being conducted per day increasing in the past few days, the state is witnessing a minor dip in the number of new coronavirus cases, hinting at a slight fall in the positivity rate.
As per the official health department data, four deaths were reported from Bhojpur, three from Rohtas and one death each from Munger, Jehanabad, West Champaran, East Champaran and Vaishali.
Altogether seven deaths were reported from AIIMS-Patna on Thursday, including three Patna residents, informed hospital’s Covid-19 in charge Dr Sanjeev Kumar.
He said one of the doctors who died on Thursday, Dr Nagendra, was admitted on Wednesday in a critical condition. He was a government doctor posted in East Champaran. Dr Sanjeev further said they also had two such cases of couples in which one partner died on Thursday, while another recovered and was discharged on the same day. “While both the female partners have recovered on Thursday, their husbands died today,” said Dr Sanjeev.
Other two doctors who died due to Covid-19 include Jehanabad-based Dr K Rajan and retired Army Major Dr AK Singh. State IMA senior vice-president Dr Ajay Kumar said the deaths of doctors will not stop unless the government provides them with safety gear. “It is our request to the state government to provide better quality PPE kits and other safety gears. At present the PPE kit given to government doctors is of low quality,” alleged Dr Ajay.
The NMCH reported three deaths on Thursday, including two Patna residents. “One was a 59-year-old man of Gurhatta in Patna city and another was an 84-year-old Indrapuri resident. Both died of cardiac arrest,” said Dr Mukul. He further informed that the third deceased was from Vaishali and had a medical history of hypertension, TB and asthma.
Other districts which reported large number of cases include East Champaran (140), Nalanda 9137, Rohtas (105), Bhagalpur (96), Saran (79), Bhojpur (76), Begusarai (72) and Vaishali (71).
The department further stated that 1,169 people had recovered in 24 hours and with total recoveries reaching 31,673, the recovery rate stands at 65.98% as on Thursday.