A 56-year-old woman became the seventh COVID-19 casualty in Bihar on Wednesday while a 20-day-old boy was among 53 people who tested positive for coronavirus, as the state's tally rose to 932, a top official said.
According to Principal Secretary (Health) Sanjay Kumar, the woman and the 20-day-old boy -- the youngest COVID-19 patient in the state so far -- were from Patna district, which is the second worst affected city in the state with 94 confirmed cases till date.
Of the 94 COVID-19 cases in Patna, about 20 are the personnel deployed at the Bihar Military Police's 14th Battalion in Khajpura locality, which accounts for nearly half of the cases in the district.
The 56-year-old woman, a resident of Alamganj locality in the city, breathed her last at NMCH hospital following a "cardiopulmonary arrest", the principal secretary said, adding that she suffered from multiple ailments like cancer of the gall bladder, acute renal failure, obstructive jaundice, hemorrhoids with active bleeding and sepsis.
She was recently diagnosed with cancer at the Mahavir Arogya Sansthan charitable hospital in the city from where she was referred to NMCH on May 8. Her sample was collected the next day and reports on May 10 confirmed that she was COVID-19 positive, Kumar said, adding that she had no travel history and no contact history.
The baby boy is a resident of Belchhi block in rural Patna, which is emerging as yet another COVID-19 hotspot.
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Besides the child, a 49-year-old Belchhi resident and two women from Patna city are among the 53 people who tested positive for coronavirus on Wednesday.
Other districts from where coronavirus cases were reported during the day included Nawada (nine), Bhojpur (seven), Bhagalpur (six) and Siwan and Banka (four each).
Buxar, which heaved a sigh of relief on Tuesday when it was left with zero active cases, reported three fresh cases. Begusarai, Muzaffarpur, Rohtas and Khagaria reported three coronavirus cases each.
In addition, two cases were reported from Gopalganj and one each from Madhubani and Kaimur.
All 38 districts in the state have reported COVID-19 cases and Munger tops the list with a tally of 116. Significant number of cases have also been reported from Rohtas (75), Nalanda (63) and Buxar (59).
Patna district accounts for two deaths, the latest demise coming a few days after a middle-aged man from Belchhi had died at a hospital.
The state home department has issued a notification announcing that it is closing down one of its offices situated inside the Patel Bhawan, which also houses the Police Headquarters, for sanitisation after one of its staff members came in contact with a COVID-19 patient.
Munger, Vaishali, East Champaran, Sitamarhi and Rohtas districts reported one death each.
Barring the 70-year-old victim from Rohtas, all were under 60 years of age and had comorbidities.
A steep hike in COVID-19 cases has been witnessed, of late, in the state which reported its first two cases on March 22. Much of the recent spurt has been attributed to the return of migrants from other parts of the country, by special trains running every day.
Nearly 1.5 lakh people have returned to Bihar from places where they were stuck during the lockdown.
The state health department has put the number of migrants testing positive for coronavirus between May 4 and May 12 to 190.
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