Two women from Siwan district in Bihar tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, taking the total number of coronavirus cases in the state to 34, a top official said.
Principal Secretary of Health Sanjay Kumar said the women, aged 45 and 22, had come in contact with a COVID-19 patient from the district who had travelled to the Middle East and returned on March 21. It was not immediately known whether they were all related to each other.
However, the number of active cases in the state has dropped further to 18 with five patients from Patna, Munger and Siwan districts having recovered, he said.
The state witnessed the sharpest decline in the number of active cases between Sunday and Monday when no one tested positive even though as many as six persons, including a woman, were discharged from hospitals after recovery.
Patna is now left with no active case while Munger, which accounted for the state's only casualty last month, has one. Gaya is now left with the highest number of active cases at five, followed by Siwan and Gopalganj (three each), Nalanda (two) and Begusarai, Saran, Lakhisarai and Bhagalpur (one each).
According to the state health department, at least 4,062 samples had been tested till Tuesday morning at four facilities in Bihar -- RMRI, IGIMS and PMCH in Patna and DMCH in Darbhanga.
No positive case has been reported so far from PMCH where testing of samples commenced on Monday and DMCH where more than 100 samples have been examined till date.
A majority of tests have, however, been conducted at RMRI, an ICMR centre here, where a total of 3,257 samples were tested till Tuesday morning.
The state, which has been moderately affected by the pandemic yet proactive in taking preventive action, has identified as many as 276 buildings across Bihar, mostly hotels and hostels, for setting up quarantine centres.
Of these, 218 have already started functioning, says the state health department.
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