 "coronavirus")
Bihar's active caseload on Monday climbed to 1,385 on account of 344 fresh COVID-19 cases which included visitors at a programme of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
According to the health department, Patna district is bearing the brunt of the current spike in coronavirus cases.
Altogether 160 people here tested positive for the infection, six of whom were citizens who had come to attend Janata Ke Durbar Mein Mukhyamantri, besides a staff member involved in catering services at the chief minister's secretariat.
The district now accounts for 698 active cases, more than half of the state's figure.
Patna is followed by Gaya which has an active caseload of 365 and where the number of fresh cases was 88, including former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi and 17 of his family members and personal staff.
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On the brighter side, the state has not reported any COVID death for about a week.
Altogether 7,27,872 people have caught the contagion to date, out of whom 7,14,391 have recovered while 12,096 have died.
A high testing rate has been maintained by way of abundant caution. The number of samples examined in the last 24 hours is more than one lakh.
The day also saw the state's first genome sequencing facility getting operational at the IGIMS hospital which is expected to help timely detection of Omicron.
The state has so far reported only one Omicron case - a 26-year-old resident of Patna who travelled to Delhi about a fortnight ago and caught the infection from a relative based abroad.
The day also saw the launch of vaccination for adolescents aged 15 years and above.
According to Chandrashekhar Singh, District Magistrate, Patna, 7,269 boys and girls of the aforementioned age group received the shots at 87 vaccination centres.
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