PATNA: Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday ruled out the possibility of a night curfew in Bihar in the wake of rising cases of COVID-19. He described the situation in Bihar as better than in other states.
Talking to mediapersons after garlanding the statue of former Prime Minister and BJP stalwart Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his birth anniversary, Nitish said there was no need of a night curfew in the state right now.
He said so far no case of Omicron, the new variant of COVID-19, has been found in the state.
Meanwhile, sources in the health department said a central team is likely to visit the state to take stock of preparations for Omicron. However, the date of the central team's visit to the state has not been revealed.
Earlier, the Union health ministry had sent a letter to the state chief secretary asking the latter to provide information related to preparations for dealing with Omicron.
A senior official of the state health department said six teams comprising 80 officials have been formed to ensure better treatment to patients at government health facilities across the state.
The members of the teams would also monitor the functioning of health facilities in case of an outbreak of a fresh wave of the pandemic. Additional chief secretary of the health department Sanjay Kumar confirmed the formation of the special teams to deal with the situation. A control-cum-monitoring cell has been constituted at the headquarters to regulate the functioning of the teams.