PATNA: A 4-year-old boy died at AIIMS-Patna due to Covid while 162 more people tested positive for the virus in the state in the past 24 hours on Monday. Among the 162 new cases, 59 were from Patna alone, including cabinet ministers Sanjay Kumar Jha and Vijay Kumar Choudhary. Both are under home isolation. One of the 2 ministers said he had mild symptoms.
AIIMS-Patna nodal officer for Covid, Dr Sanjeev Kumar, said the child was admitted 12 days back and had lungs and heart issues. He was on ventilator support and died late Sunday evening. His death was reported by the health department on Monday. The state Covid death toll increased to 12,261.
As per the health department data, the new cases were against 83,413 samples tested. After Patna, Bhagalpur had the maximum 32 cases, followed by Khagaria (8), Gaya (7) and Banka (5). The active cases in state increased to 1169, including 649 in Patna, followed by Bhagalpur (105), Banka (44), Gaya (39) and Khagaria (27).
Meanwhile, additional chief secretary (health) Pratyaya Amrit reviewed the situation at a videoconference with all the civil surgeons on Monday.
Sources said Patna, Bhagalpur, Banka and Gaya were especially asked to remain vigilant and examine the trend in their districts. They were asked to create containment zones, as per requirement. “All the districts have been told to ramp up vaccination as well as testing,” state health society executive director Sanjay Kumar Singh said, adding the department has planned for another mega vaccination camp on July 7.
Health minister Mangal Pandey also had a review meeting of all the district hospitals on Monday. Singh, who was present in the meeting, said the district hospitals have been asked to display the duty roster of the doctors prominently at two places in the hospital. Districts like Munger and Vaishali were found to be relatively better in rendering health services in OPD, tests and x-rays. Jamui, Supaul, Madhubani and Jehanabad were instructed to improve their services.
