PATNA: The Bihar government will now not pay ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh to the dependents of residents of state, who succumb to coronavirus outside the state.
The responsibility of paying ex-gratia to the nearest dependents of all those who have lost their lives due to Covid-19 in Bihar has been given to the State Disaster department by the state government after the Covid-19 was notified as epidemic.
According to additional chief secretary of health, Pratyay Amrit, so far the payment of ex-gratia to the dependants of nearly 3,737 residents of Bihar, who had recently died because of the Covid-19 infection, has already been carried out.
"But from now on, ex-gratia payments as announced by state government to dependents of the people , who had died of Covid- 19 will be made by the state disaster department after receiving the applications till March 2022", he said.
It has also been decided not pay the ex-gratia to the dependents of the non-Bihar residents who had died while working or living here.
As per an official figure, more than 9,888 people in Bihar had lost their lives during the first and second phases of Covid-19 pandemic and out of them; dependents of nearly 3,737 Covid-19 positive patients after their deaths have been given the ex-gratia amounts by the government.
In another move, nearly 3000 samples collected during the sero survey in Bihar’s six districts have been sent to Chennai for the seropositive tests.
Official sources said that samples were collected from 2400 common people and 600 health workers between June 21 and June 27 for sero survey from Arwal, Begusarai, Muzaffarpur, Buxar, Purnia and Madhubani.
For the first time in Bihar, the children of 6 -17 age group were also included in the sero survey. The test reports of samples sent to Chennai are expected to come next month.