Highest single-day corona spike in Bihar, lockdown announced from 17-31 July

With 1,742 new cases, Bihar witnessed its highest singleday spike in the numbers of coronavirus patients on Friday. After this, the total tally of Covid cases in the state now stands at 23,300. To control the deteriorating Covid situation in the state, the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government has imposed a state-wide lockdown again from 17-31 July. The Chief Minister has also issued instructions to double the testing facilities and conduct 20k tests every day. At present, 10,000 Covid tests are being conducted in the state daily.

Bihar has registered 167 deaths so far and 14,101 people have also recovered. The recovery rate, however, has shown a downward trend and has come down to 65.41 percent. In the last 24 hours, 10 deaths were registered across the state.  The death percentage is 0.77 percent of the total number of cases in the state. Meanwhile, most of the hospitals are flooded with people who are wanting to go for tests but due to lack of resources, doctors here are facing tough times to manage the crowd and maintain social distancing norms.

Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav has been constantly attacking the ruling BJP and JDU through virtual rallies. In return, BJP and JDU too have also opened their front against Yadav. BJP spokesperson Nikhil Anand said, “Tejashvi should come out and get himself and his family tested and make results public. He has gone to Gopalganj, has been meeting people and even holding press conferences. So we think he is vulnerable to the disease and should go for tests and not hide facts.”

Dr Ajay Alok of JDU, who himself is under home quarantine for corona, also issued a statement asking Yadav to go for the tests citing same reasons.