JOIN USNitish Kumar's aide, Rabri Devi's staff and Patna DM among Bihar's new Covid-19 positive cases
Nitish Kumar's close associate and Rajya Sabha Member RCP Singh, Patna District Magistrate Kumar Ravi, and 13 staff at former Chief Minister Rabri Devi's official residence were among the 3521 new Covid-19 cases reported in Bihar in the last 24 hours. The state's overall tally has now increased to 54,508.
The spike in cases have coincided with record number of testing of samples - 28,624 - in a single day.
"Out of those who have tested positive so far, there are 35,743 persons who have recovered too, which essentially means we have 65.08 per cent recovery rate," said Bihar's Health Secretary Lokesh Kumar Singh.
Nitish's trusted aide RCP Singh has been admitted to AIIMS, Patna. On the other hand, Patna DM, who has quarantined himself, has handed over the charge of District Magistrate to Deputy Development Commissioner (DDC) Richi Pandey.
App for Covid-19 testing
Meanwhile, the Bihar Government has developed a mobile app called 'Sanjivan', which will facilitate Covid-19 testing and provide information about the viral outbreak. The app can help a person to register for Covid-19 test, apply for self-quarantine at home and also provide details of nearest testing centres.
In the meantime, the Bihar Government is mulling over the proposal to fix rates for collecting swab samples from home. This is being done to avoid crowding at the testing centres.
Presently, the state government charges Rs 2,500 to conduct RT-PCR tests at a private laboratory. "An additional Rs 300 will be added to the fixed charges for collecting swab samples from home," said a Health Department official here on Sunday.