17 test positive for COVID 19 in Bihar, total climbs to 113

Patna, Apr 20 () The number of COVID-19 cases crossed the 100-mark in Bihar on Monday as 17 people tested positive for the disease in Nalanda district, taking the total count of such cases to 113 in the state, a top official said.

Principal Secretary, Health, Sanjay Kumar said all the fresh cases -- seven females aged between 17 and 50 years, 10 males in the age group of 14 to 50 years -- were reported from Bihar Sharif, the headquarters of Nalanda district.

This is the second-highest jump in the number of coronavirus cases in the state so far. On April 10, Siwan had reported 19 cases.

Contact-tracing for the patients was on, Kumar said, adding that it was not immediately known how many of the patients were related to each other.

The fresh cases took the number of COVID-19 patients in Nalanda, which is Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's home district, to 28, placing it right after Siwan, which has reported 29 cases, the official said.

However, 17 of the patients in Siwan have recovered till date, while Nalanda now has the highest number of active cases at 26, with only two recoveries.

The 113 cases reported so far include two deaths, one each from Munger and Vaishali districts.

The outbreak in Nalanda comes barely two days after four people tested positive in Bihar Sharif.

The local administration has been trying to figure out the reason behind the sudden rise in the number of cases in the district. A link to a Tablighi Jamaat congregation held in Bihar Sharif in the first half of March, which is said to have been attended by hundreds of people, has been not ruled out.

Meanwhile, in a bid to ramp up the healthcare machinery in the state, all private clinics, nursing homes, hospitals and diagnostic centres have been directed to resume services with immediate effect, the principal secretary said.

The private facilities have been asked to conduct screening of suspected COVID-19 cases, record travel history and report these to the civil surgeon of the district within three hours of examination, he added.