Covid-19 in Bihar: 3.53 lakh people get jabs in a day

A record 3.53 lakh people received jabs on Wednesday in Bihar where Covid-19 situation continued to show improvement with fewer fresh cases and fatalities being reported.

According to the health department, the total number of beneficiaries so far has reached 1.26 crore.

Of these, 1.05 crore have received only the first shot. Among those who received the shots during the day, 3.43 lakh took it for the first time.

As many as 2.99 lakh among them were in the age group of 18-44 years. Total number of beneficiaries in the age group for which inoculation was rolled out only about a month ago, was just over 29 lakhs.

Only a little more than 5,000 people in this age group have taken both shots. The number of shots administered during the day has been the highest for the state ever since inoculation drive began in January this year.

The feat was achieved through events like a "mega inoculation" drive carried out in Patna district where a target of 43,500 jabs across all administrative blocks had been set by Chandrashekhar Singh, the District Magistrate.

Last week, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had announced that six crore people of the state will be vaccinated in the next six months. Total population of the state is about 13 crore.

The government has, through a cabinet notification, pledged free vaccination to all its citizens. Meanwhile, nine fresh fatalities pushed the death toll to 9523 while 370 people tested positive in the last 24 hours, raising the tally to 7,18,319. The number of people who have recovered so far was 70485. Active caseload stood at 3991. Recovery rate has risen to 98.12 per cent in Bihar.