COVID-19 in Bihar: 103 deaths in a day rattles state even as positivity rate drops; vaccination slows down too

Patna: Bihar was on Saturday again rattled by 100 plus COVID-19 fatalities in a day, which caused its toll to reach 4,439, notwithstanding a continually falling positivity rate and active caseload which have also resulted in a markedly improved recovery rate. According to the health department, 103 deaths were reported since the previous day, making it the third occasion during the week for the state to have reported fatalities in three digits. On Tuesday, the biggest single day hike of 111 deaths was reported, followed by 104 the following day. The states death toll has increased by nearly 1,000 in the last 10 days, in an indication of the devastation wrought by the second wave. Nonetheless, with restrictive measures like a complete lockdown which has been in force for about a month, the state has succeeded in curbing the number of people getting infected by the coronavirus. The number of people who tested positive in the last 24 hours was 4,375, a definite improvement over the situation that prevailed in the beginning of the month when more than 10,000 people were catching the contagion on a daily basis. This has also caused the recovery rate to look up andcross 92 percent while the active caseload, which was in excess of one lakh till a few weeks ago, was now 44,907. Altogether, 6.85 lakh people have tested positive in the state since the outbreak of the pandemic more than a year ago. Out of them, 6.36 lakh have recovered. Although Bihar was one of the less severely affected states last year, the second wave has come as a jolt, adding more than four lakh cases to the states tally in less than two months. The severity of the outbreak owes itself in a great measure to the spread of the contagion to rural areas where the situation is exacerbated by poor testing facilities and inadequate medical infrastructure. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar earlier in the day dispatched a fleet of “mobile RT-PCR vans” which would patrol the states rural areas and provide testing facilities to people’s doorsteps an amenity which was so far available to only those living in the cities. Vaccination drive in the state is continuing in the state at a moderate pace, with more than 40,000 people getting the jabs during the day raising the total number of beneficiaries so far, across all age groups, to 96.63 lakh.