Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar tested Covid-19 positive. The chief minister’s office (CMO), in a statement released on Tuesday, informed about his illness and said that the CM has requested all those who came into his contact in the past few days to get themselves tested for the infection.
The Janata Dal (United) supremo had missed out on the swearing-in ceremony of President Drupadi Murmu on Monday as he was feeling unwell for the past two-three days, CMO said.
It is the second time this year that the septuagenarian leader of Bihar has contracted the coronavirus. He first tested positive for the virus in January.
Bihar has seen a surge in infection in the past few weeks where the majority of the cases were being recorded from the capital city of Patna. However, in a relief to the state’s population, the number of active cases fell below 2,000, from 2,305 on Sunday to 1,850 on Monday.
Out of the 87,293 samples tested, 355 new Covid-19 cases have been reported on Monday in the state. Out of these, more than one-fourth of the cases (94) have been recorded from Patna while the district of Saharsa is a distant second, recording 57 new cases.
At the national level, 14,830 have been recorded in the last 24 hours, seeing a dip from 16,866 cases reported on Monday. While the total number of active cases declined to 1,47,512, the death toll reached 5,26,110, up by 36 since the day before, Union Health Ministry informed.
(With PTI Inputs)