13 test positive for COVID-19 in Bihar; total reaches 126

Patna, Apr 21 () Thirteen people tested positive for COVID-19 in Bihar on Tuesday, taking the total number of coronavirus cases in the state to 126, a top Health department official said.

Principal Secretary, Health, Sanjay Kumar said seven cases were reported from Munger district, followed by four from Buxar and one each from Patna and Rohtas.

Among the Munger patients were four women in the age group of 20 to 37 years and three men aged between 28 and 36 years, he said.

All the fresh cases in Munger are from Jamalpur block where the contagion has been traced to a 60-year-old man, who had travelled to Nalanda district last month to attend a Tablighi Jamaat congregation and tested positive last week.

Altogether 10 people had tested positive in Jamalpur the previous week, all of them were members of the same family. These included a six months old girl and a two years old girl.

In Patna, a 31-year-old man, co-worker of the husband of a woman from Khajpura locality who tested positive a few days ago, has tested positive, state epidemiologist Ragini Mishra told .

The husband and other family members of the woman who was admitted to AIIMS, Patna following breathing trouble, are kept under observation though none of them have tested positive so far, she added.

In Buxar, those who tested positive are three females aged between 12 and 39 years and a 32 years old man, the principal secretary said.

Buxar Superintendent of Police Upendranath Verma said the Naya Bhojpur village, which had reported four cases last week and in the vicinity of which the latest cases lived, have been sealed.

Among the four Buxar patients who tested positive last week, two had travelled to Asansol last month to attend a Tablighi Jamaat congregation and the remaining two were their family members.

In Rohtas district, which has reported its first case, the patient is a 60-year-old woman whose contact tracing was on, the principal secretary said.

Bihar had reported its first couple of cases on March 22. However, nearly a quarter of the total number of cases so far have been reported in the last 24 hours.

On Monday, as many as 17 people from Bihar Sharif, the headquarters of Nalanda district had tested positive.

Only 15 out of 38 districts in the state have reported COVID 19 cases. Siwan (29), Nalanda (28) and Munger (27) account for two-third of these.

Forty-two patients, one-third of the total number of cases reported so far, have recovered. Four districts Bhagalpur, Lakhisarai, Saran and Gopalganj together accounting for six cases are now left with no active case.

Two patients, one each from Munger and Vaishali districts, have died.