Covid-19 kills 73 more in Bihar, positivity rate nearly halves in 10 days

The death toll in the state has reached 3743, even as the government has asserted that the situation is improving rapidly and the positivity rate has dipped by more than half in just 10 days

COVID-19 has claimed 73 more lives

raising the death toll to 3743 in Bihar on Saturday, even as the government asserted that the situation was improving rapidly and the positivity rate has dipped by more than half in just 10 days.

According to the state health minister Mangal Pandey, positivity rate in the state, which was as high as 14.04 per cent 10 days ago, now stood at just 6.7 per cent.

According to the health department, 1.10 lakh samples were tested since the previous day out of which only 7,336 tested positive.

Total number of people who have been infected by the coronavirus, since the pandemic first struck more than a year ago, has reached 6.45 lakh.

However, 5.58 lakh people have recovered and the active caseload, which till a week ago above one lakh, has also dipped to 82,486.

The state was rattled by an eruption of fresh cases and fatalities since the beginning of April.

When restrictions like curtailed business hours and night curfew proved insufficient, the Nitish Kumar government clamped a full lockdown from May 05 to 15.

The lockdown has been extended till May 25 with some minor changes in the guidelines effective from Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister conducted "virtual tour" of COVID care centres in several districts of the state, interacted with patients admitted there and sought to cheer them up with the assurance that the government will help them tide over the crisis.

On the vaccination front, 89.88 lakh people have received the jabs till date. These include 6.09 lakh in the age group of 18-44 years, for whom inoculation began as late as May 08 for want of adequate number of vials.