IndiaPatna, Apr 24 () Bihar saw the highest spike in the novel coronavirus cases so far after as many as 53 people tested positive on Friday, taking the number of infections to 223, less than a week after crossing the three-digit mark.
Jamalpur town in Munger district reported a staggering 30 COVID-19 cases and a dozen more were reported from a village in Buxar district. Madhepura and Aurangabad districts registered their first cases, while the number of infections continued to grow in Nalanda, Patna, Saran and Banka.
According to Sanjay Kumar, principal secretary, health, all but one of the cases in Munger were reported from Jamalpur, which accounts for more than half of the 62 cases in the district, making it the worst affected in the state.
The patients are in the age group of 10-70 years and all of them picked up the contagion from a single source, while a 60-year-old woman tested positive in Munger city.
On March 21, a resident of Munger district with travel history to Qatar had died at the AIIMS-Patna while undergoing treatment for renal failure. His test reports, which came a day after his death, confirmed that he was also infected with the dreaded coronavirus.
Within a few days, six residents of Munger town who had come into contact with the deceased were infected. They had all, however, recovered by the first week of April and the district enjoyed a lull for some time with no active cases.
But, on April 14, a 60-year-old vegetable vendor in Jamalpur and had travelled on foot to Nalanda district for taking part in a Tablighi Jamaat congregation a month ago, tested positive, setting in motion a chain of transmission that continues to spiral.
An alarmed Superintendent of Police Lipi Singh led a flag march across the district, warning loiterers against violating the lockdown and asking people not to venture out of their homes without their face masks on.
Jamalpur, which has a population of less than one lakh and is famous for a railway workshop, has been made out of bounds for all except officials and personnel involved in emergency services.
In Buxar district, all the 12 patients, including a 14-month-old boy, were from the Naya Bhojpur village in Dumraon sub-division, which has emerged as another hotspot with a total number of 20 cases.
All cases have been traced to two men who had tested positive last week and had travelled to Asansol in West Bengal late last month to take part in a congregation of the Tablighi Jamaat.
A 46-year-old woman from Madhepura and two men, aged 18 and 21, from Aurangabad tested positive. The principal secretary said their travel history was not known and contact tracing was on.
In Patna, a 44-year-old resident of the Dak Bungalow locality and a 40-year-old woman from Masaurhi tested positive.
Three people tested positive in Nalanda district. These included a 28-year-old man from Asthawan block and two women from Bihar Sharif town, the district headquarters.
Bihar Sharif accounts for more than half of the active cases in Nalanda, which is the second worst-affected district with 31 people having tested positive, out of which 13 have recovered.
A 68-year-old man has tested positive in Saran district, which had been without any active case since April 12.
In Banka district, a 36-year-old resident of Bishanpur village has tested positive. He caught the contagion from a migrant worker hailing from an adjoining village who had fallen ill in Mumbai.
The patient happened to be among the occupants of an ambulance on which the migrant was brought to Bihar a few weeks ago and quarantined at Bhagalpur. Another occupant of the ambulance had tested positive on the previous day.
The state accounts for less than one per cent of the total number of COVID-19 cases. It had witnessed its first couple of cases on March 22 and on April 19, it crossed the three-digit mark with the total reaching 113. The number has nearly doubled since then.
Of the 38 districts in the state, the pandemic has spread to 20. The total number of samples tested so far is 14,905. NAC RGHMB