RJD shuts Patna office after visitors tested +ve

Patna: The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the main Opposition party in Bihar, has closed its office in the state capital Patna for an indefinite period as the number of coronavirus cases there is continuously rising.

On Sunday, the state had reported as many as 5,022 new Covid cases, 496 more than the previous day, pushing the number of active cases to 16,897 and the tally to 7,45,400, according to the state’s health department.

RJD spokesperson Chitaranjan Gagan said that the party had closed its office in Patna for an indefinite period after some visitors to it tested positive after they underwent RTPCR tests.

A bulletin by the state health department said that one death due to the disease was reported in the last 24 hours and the cumulative toll in the infection stood at 12,101. A total 71,6401 people have recovered from the disease so far, including 435 in the last 24 hours.

Five districts of the state accounted for the majority of the new cases, the bulletin said. Patna alone registered 2,018 fresh cases on Sunday.

On Friday and Saturday, the city had registered 1,314 and 2,956 cases respectively. The number of active cases now stands at 9122 in Patna, the bulletin said.

Gaya reported 258 cases, Muzaffarpur 209, Begusarai 125 and Saran 121, it said. Bihar had registered 3,048 fresh coronavirus cases on Friday. Altogether 6.23 crore samples have been tested so far, including 2.10 lakh in the last 24 hours, the bulletin said.

The state has so far accounted for one confirmed case of the Omicron variant. Bihar Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Pratyaya Amrit sought to assure the people of the government’s readiness to tackle the situation. “There is nothing to panic at all.

The Bihar government is already on alert. Proper arrangements have been made in all the hospitals. Common people need to be on the alert”, he said.