Covid-19: Bihar opts for rapid tests as cases cross 15,000-mark

PATNA: On a day the number of Covid-19 cases crossed the 15,000 mark, the state government on Saturday authorised the use of rapid antigen kits for coronavirus tests in Bihar to ramp up testing capacity.
The state health department will make these rapid test kits, which can show results within 30 minutes, available to the districts in a week. Sources said bigger districts will get at least 1,000 kits.
The decision to introduce the rapid kits was taken after a letter from the Union ministry of health and family welfare to all states instructing them to ramp up testing and it recommended the use of a rapid point-of-care antigen test kit for diagnosis.
The introduction of rapid test kits will come as a boost with the coronavirus cases surging in the state. Altogether 709 new cases were added to the Covid-19 tally taking the state-wide count to 15,039. The death toll reached 131 with six more deaths on Saturday, including two from Patna. With 10,991 recoveries the number of active cases now stand at 3,298. However, the health department’s official death toll stands at 118.
Four deaths were reported from AIIMS-Patna, which includes a 48-year-old woman of Patna City. The other deceased were from Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga and one from Giridih in Jharkhand, said the hospital’s Covid-19 in-charge Dr Sanjeev Kumar.
The Nalanda Medical College and Hospital (NMCH) epidemiologist-cum-nodal officer (reporting cell), Dr Mukul Kumar Singh, said two Covid-19 positive people died on Saturday. One was a 70-year-old male, who resided near the Shiv Mandir in Jakkanpur locality. “He had a medical history of hypertension and asthma. Another deceased was a 46-year-old female from Sitamarhi, who died of cardiac arrest. She also had comorbidity,” said Dr Mukul.
As per information shared by the health department, Covd-19 cases were reported from 34 districts with maximum 133 cases from Patna. Other districts which reported large number of cases include Bhagalpur (75), Nawada (69), Jamui (39), Gaya (38), Muzaffarpur (38), saran (27), Sitamarhi (24), Gopalganj (23) and Saharasa (20).
State health secretary Lokesh Kumar Singh said 740 people recovered in the past 24 hours, taking the total recoveries to 10,991 and hence the recovery rate in Bihar stands at 73.08%. In the same time period, 709 new cases were registered and 9,108 samples were tested.