PATNA: Leader of Opposition in Bihar Tejashwi Yadav summed up the COVID situation in the state as 'very scary' as a huge number of infections are being reported every day. Taking to Twitter on Thursday, Yadav lamented that two IAS officers and few other officials have succumbed to the deadly virus in the last two days.
"Imagine about commoners! Many senior IAS, officials, doctors, employees admitted. No beds available even in Patna. Health Secretary has asked for doctors from Indian Army," he tweeted.
The RJD leader claimed that he has been asking the Nitish Kumar government to wake up from its slumber since the outset of COVID-19. "Since the outset of #Corona, I have been repeatedly persuading & coaxing Bihar Govt to wake up from its insensitive slumber to ramp up capacity building of Hospitals, increase testing, build makeshift hospitals, quarantine & isolation centers, test everyone arriving in Bihar," he said.
He further said that he has been requesting the Bihar CM to increase the number of ventilators and oxygen stock. "I requested time & again to Bihar CM to increase the number of Ventilators & O2 stock, but everything fell in the deaf ears. Instead of fixing the problem, he fixed the Headlines,honest officers & fudged the numbers. As a result he wasted a year to find the State again in a fix," he said.
Bihar reported 4786 new coronavirus cases taking the toll to 23724 in state. The state capital Patna, in particular, has emerged as the hotspot with 8446 active cases. Vikash R Keshri, an epidemiologist, has also admitted that the kind of spurt the COVID positive cases Patna has witnessed in the last seven days has turned alarming even in comparison to cities like Mumbai and Delhi considering the population. On being asked about the positivity rate among children, he said, Higher positivity among children again is probably due to increased movement, the opening of schools earlier and non-adherence to Covid appropriate behaviour."
The city had logged 1483 new cases followed by 334 each in Bhagalpur and Gaya, 242 in Muzaffarpur, and 116 in Bhojpur. The recovery rate from the infection has drastically declined to 91.40% from 97%.
State government officials are not sharing the latest figures on the pandemic with a majority of the media. "After coronavirus, media persons are facing a tough challenge when it comes to seeking statements from either minister or officials over the pandemic situation in the state," said a senior journalist.