The rise and fall of Covid-19 cases in Bihar

The Covid-19 tests have substantially increased in Bihar in the past fortnight. Obviously, the number of positive cases has also increased. But in terms of percentage, the cases have reduced by 50%. Sounds a bit unbelievable. But it’s true.

Sample this. On July 14,10,018 samples were tested in the state, of which 1,432 tested positive. In terms of percentage, it was 14.29%. On July 23, the Covid-19 cases were 1,625 out of 10,120 samples tested. This amounts to around 16%.

Till then, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was constantly directing officials to increase testing but the number of tests hovered around 10,000. In the last week of July, Kumar appointed a new principal secretary to the health department, Pratyaya Amrit, who, in turn, brought in a change by increasing the tests to 35,000 by August 1.

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“By August 6, the number of tests increased to 60,254. Of which 3,416 new cases were detected. In terms of percentage, it was 5.66. Almost one-third, compared to July 23 figures (of 16 per cent),” said a senior health department official.

The tests eventually increased to 71,520 on August 7, of which 3,646 persons tested positive. “Numerically, the figures were high, but percentage-wise, it was quite low at 5.09%,” said the source, adding that the statistics for August have to be watched closely.

“If the trend of declining percentage continues, we could be headed towards flattening of the curve,” he added.

'Fake data'

However, former Union minister Yashwant Sinha, who was in Patna on Saturday and is likely to participate in the Bihar Assembly elections under the banner of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA), rubbished such claims.

“The Nitish government is hiding the actual number of coronavirus cases for political reasons. The officials are misleading people and releasing fake data,” said the former finance minister, who had announced his retirement from active politics but put his decision on the back-burner “after watching the plight of migrant workers in Covid-19.”