Three more test positive for COVID-19 in Bihar, total count 64

Three more persons tested positive for COVID-19 in Bihar, taking the total number of such cases in the state to 64, a top official said.

Of the three, one is a 16-year-old girl from Nawada and the other two are men, aged 40 and 63, from Begusarai district, Sanjay Kumar, the principal secretary of state health department, said on Saturday, adding that officials were trying to trace those who came in contact with them.

Earlier on Saturday, a 45-year-old man, also from Nawada, was found to have contracted COVID-19.

Bihar has reported one death so far, while 18 have recovered from the disease.

A 38-year-old man from Munger, with a travel history to Qatar, had died at AIIMS, Patna, on March 21.

Test reports, confirming that he was COVID 19- positive, arrived a day after his death.

According to the State Health Society''s bulletin, issued on late on Saturday, 6,250 samples have been examined so far, of which 6,182 tested negative and four have been rejected.

Siwan, which has been identified as a hotspot for COVID-19, has accounted for 29 cases, followed by Munger and Begusarai with seven each, Patna and Gaya with five each, Gopalganj and Nawada with three patients each, Nalanda with two cases, and one each in Lakhisarai, Saran, and Bhagalpur.

The total number of cases in the state nearly doubled during the week after 20 members of a family tested positive for the disease in Panjwar village of Siwan district, officials here said.

The village has been completely sealed, with bamboo barricades erected on the streets and drones deployed to ensure people do not venture out of homes. NDRF personnel have been pressed into service to fumigate the area, they added.