A day after disturbing pictures of
passengers crowding roof of buses and people freely moving on bikes as well as in cars on Patna streets in violation of the lockdown order over coronavirus pandemic,situation improved on Tuesday with only thin traffic sighted and markets remaining shut here following Bihar governments strict measures.
Only handful of vehicles engaged in transportation of essential items were witnessed while markets wore a deserted look here and other parts of the state.
Except for the shops dealing in essential services such as milk, grocery, medicines etc, all other commercial outlets were closed in the state capital.
Around 250 auto-rickshaws, cars and bikes were seized and penalty imposed on them for violating the lockdown order till Monday, transport department officials said.
Security perssonel are stringently asking people not to venture out of their home nnecessarily.
No fresh case of coronavirus has been reported from anywhere in Bihar.
Total number of COVID-19 cases stood at three that included a death in the state.
Bihar reported first death from coronavirus on Sunday at AIIMS, Patna while another woman tested positive for COVID-19 at the same hospital that day.
A third case had surfaced on Monday after a 24-year-old man, with a travel history to the UK, tested positive for the disease at a hospital here.
Out of the 194 samples collected so far, three positive cases of coronavirus were confirmed whereas 175 samples were found negative, an officia bulletin said, adding reports are still awaited in 14 cases.
Two samples were rejected, it added.
A total of 21422 passengers were screened at Gaya/Patna airport, it said.
Transport Secretary Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, who is also Patna Divisional Commissioner, asked all District Magistrates, Superintendents of Police, District Transport Officers (DTOs) to strictly enforce the advisory issued for implementing the lockdown as preventive step to keep citizens safe from COVID- 19 outbreak.
Additional Director General of Police (Headquarters) Jitendra Kumar asked all the SSPs and SPs to implement the lockdown in letter and spirit.
The state government had on Sunday enforced lockdown in all district headquarters, sub-divisional headquarters, block headquarters and urban local bodies of the state till March 31, 2020 in order to break the transmission chain. Essential services have been kept out of the order.
Meanwhile, Bihar Director General of Police (DGP) Gupteshwar Pandey took strong exception to people seen moving on roads on the first day of the lockdown order and made a fervent appeal to the citizens not to go out cf their homes unless and until its urgent.
"People were seen moving on roads on the first day of the lockdown. They came out on roads for fun. This can not be justified at all. I am making an appeal to all of you with folded hands not to venture out of your home unless there is an emergency.
"Its a kind of curfew and you people have to show the discipline and composure which you showed during Janata Curfew on Sunday last," Pandey said in a video message.
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