Covid-19: Bihar witnesses spike in cases, Patna emerges as hotspot - Hindustan Times
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Covid-19: Bihar witnesses spike in cases, Patna emerges as hotspot

By | Edited by Ayshee Bhaduri, Hindustan Times, New Delhi
Apr 05, 2021 06:46 PM IST

Bihar's capital Patna has emerged as the Covid-19 hotspot, recording 372 new cases in the last 24 hours.

Bihar has been witnessing a spike in the number of daily Covid-19 infections in the past few weeks. The state recorded 864 new cases on Sunday, its highest since October last year, taking the state-wide tally to 2,68,377. In the last 24 hours, one Covid-19 infected patient succumbed to the disease, which tool the death toll to 1,583, according to state government's bulletin.

Additional personnel have been deployed in public spaces like railway stations to ensure people maintain social distancing and follow Covid-19 protocols.. (Photo by Santosh Kumar /Hindustan Times)
Additional personnel have been deployed in public spaces like railway stations to ensure people maintain social distancing and follow Covid-19 protocols.. (Photo by Santosh Kumar /Hindustan Times)

Bihar's capital Patna has emerged as Covid-19 hotspot, recording 372 new cases in the last 24 hours. Trailing behind are districts of Jehanabad (60 cases), Bhagalpur (46 cases), and Muzaffarpur (34 cases).

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Chief minister Nitish Kumar chaired a high-level meeting on Saturday to discuss Bihar’s worsening Covid-19 situation, following which fresh guidelines were issued by the state health department. Opening of schools and colleges which was scheduled for Monday has been deferred till April 11. Additional police personnel have been deployed in public spaces like railway stations, vegetable markets and bus terminals to ensure people maintain social distancing and follow Covid-19 protocols.

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The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Patna has restricted the outpatient departments (OPD) to 50 patients a day per department, in order to curb crowding within the hospital premises, HT reported on April 4. AIIMS Patna has also been refusing to admit Covid-19 patients for the last three days citing unavailability of beds. State health department has asked AIIMS to increase the number of Covid-19 beds due to the sudden spike in Covid-19 cases.

“We are not able to accommodate any Covid-19 patients for the last three days as all our beds are full. Ninety-five beds for Covid-19 patients in our institute were occupied till yesterday. We are increasing the number of beds to 110, following the state health department’s request,” said Dr Sanjeev Kumar, nodal officer for Covid-19 at AIIMS-Patna told HT.

AIIMS had reduced the number of beds designated for Covid-19 patients to 40, out of which 20 beds were reserved in the Intensive Care Unit and 20 in wards. The state government had directed AIIMS authorities to increase the number of Covid-19 designated beds as cases started peaking after Holi.

“We are adding 10 beds to the existing 20 in the ICU for Covid-19 patients. The remaining 80 beds will be in wards. We cannot increase any further beds at this point of time because we also need to cater to non-Covid patients, who are admitted at our hospital,” added Dr Kumar.

The spike in cases has caused the state’s recovery rate to dip from 99 per cent to 98.31 per cent.

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