PATNA: Bihar witnessed a huge hike in COVID-19 infections on Saturday, with 301 people testing positive for the virus, while two more fatalities pushed the death toll to 58, officials said.
With the fresh cases, the state's coronavirus tally has reached 8,979.
According to Health Secretary Lokesh Kumar Singh, a 60-year-old man from Rohtas district died on Friday. He was also suffering from other ailments.
The other fatality was reported from Begusarai, though details like the time of death, age and medical history of the deceased were not known. Begusarai now accounts for four fatalities.
Only Darbhanga, Patna and Saran -- with five deaths each -- have reported a higher number of casualties.
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Coronavirus cases have been reported in all 38 districts of the state and those with the highest numbers are Patna (557), Bhagalpur (430), Madhubani (424), Siwan (401), Begusarai (384) and Rohtas (323).
Only Sheohar, Arwal and Jamui have reported less than 100 cases till date.
The health secretary, however, asserted that things were "improving" in Bihar as now only 4.4 per cent of people among those tested on a given day were found positive, down from five per cent in the recent past.
He also pointed out that the state's recovery rate at 78 per cent was significantly higher than the national average of 58.14 per cent.
The number of patients recovered from the disease is 6,930. A total of 1.98 lakh samples have been tested so far.