Six-month-old girl among three fresh COVID-19 cases in Bihar, total reaches 83

Three persons, including a six-month-old infant girl, have tested positive for COVID-19 inBihar, taking the total number of coronavirus cases in thestate to 83, a top official said on Friday.According to Principal Secretary, Health, SanjayKumar, all the three cases reported late Thursday the babygirl besides a woman aged 21 years and a 55-year-old man have been reported from Munger district.

The trio belong to the same family from Jamalpur blockwhich had earlier reported seven cases a 60-year-old man whotested positive on Wednesday and six others, including a two-year-old girl whose test reports came a day later.

"The 60-year-old had attended a Tablighi Jamaatcongregation in Nalanda district," Block Development OfficerRajiv Kumar said.

Hundreds of people are said to have taken part in thecongregation at Bihar Sharif, the headquarters of Nalandadistrict, last month before the lockdown was announced. TheTablighi Jamaat has been in the eye of a controversy eversince its headquarters at Nizamuddin in Delhi emerged as ahotspot for COVID-19.

The district now has 17 cases, and is the secondworst-affected in the state after Siwan where 24 people havetested positive.

Prior to the spurt witnessed in the last couple ofdays, Munger had for some time been without any active case,having reported one death and six recoveries.

A 38-year-old resident of the district had died atAIIMS, Patna on March 21, a day before test reports confirmedthat he was COVID-19 positive. The deceased had returned fromQatar a few weeks earlier.

Several people, neighbours and relatives in Munger andLakhisarai districts, and staff of a private hospital in Patnawhere he was briefly admitted before being referred to AIIMS,had ended up catching the contagion from the deceased.
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