News Analysis India

Tag: Bihar lockdown

  • ‘Disturbed by purported illegality’: HC upset over ‘brutality’ by cops during Bihar lockdown

    By PTI
    PATNA: The Patna High Court has expressed displeasure over complaints of “brutality by police” while enforcing lockdown in Bihar and “maltreatment” of COVID-19 patients and their attendants at various health care centres.

    An order to this effect was passed on Tuesday by a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice S Kumar after the perusal of a report by a three- member experts’ team which visited government and private hospitals, besides the COVID care centres, across the state.

    “The state has adopted the policy of test, track and treat, but for an illiterate person in a village, dissemination of information has to be in a language he understands,” the court pointed out.

    “The government must develop a state-level protocol enabling a common person to understand the need to tackle the virus,” it said.

    The court noted with concern “purported illegality and brutality exhibited by the police in enforcing the lockdown” and directed authorities concerned to place a check on such measures.

    Lockdown, enforced in the state on May 5, will continue to remain in place till June 1.

    The court also said that “the issue of maltreatment of patients and attendants needs to be addressed immediately”.

    “The government, as also medical health institutions, public as well as private, must proactively take steps to disseminate information and put in place a grievance redressal mechanism, since this alone would instil confidence in the minds of the general public,” the court ordered.

    The bench further said it was in agreement with a suggestion made by P K Shahi, a former minister and ex- advocate general, for imparting “basic training to unskilled youth”, who showed a willingness to serve at the dedicated COVID care centres.

    The court stated that lack of skilled manpower for operating various equipment installed at ICUs and wards of the health centres was “a common issue that surfaced during the hearing”.

    The matter has been posted for further hearing on June 2.

  • Bihar extends COVID-19 lockdown to June 1, set to ramp up vaccinations in rural areas

    Express News Service
    PATNA: In view of the positive results from the ongoing lockdown ending on May 25, the Bihar government has decided to extend it to June 1.

    On Monday after a meeting between the state crisis management group and officials, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced the extension of the lockdown though a couple of tweets. He said that the lockdown has helped in containing the outbreak of the infection in the state.

    “Therefore, it has been decided to extend it till June 1 with the support of the people,” he said.

    In Bihar after the lockdown, the recovery rate has gone above 93.44% while the rate of infection has dipped further to 3.5%.

    Meanwhile, the state government is set to ramp up vaccination and testing for Covid in the rural areas through mobile testing vans and vaccination vans. They will start moving across the rural areas from May 25.

    Official sources said some relaxations during the lockdown will be announced in the evening.

  • Bihar rattled by 96 COVID-19 deaths in a day, positivity rate continues to fall

    By PTI
    PATNA: Ninety-six fresh COVID-19 fatalities rattled Bihar on Monday, raising the death toll in the pandemic so far to 3,928 in the state which has been heaving a sigh of relief following a marked decline in its active caseload and positivity rate.

    According to the health department, 5,920 cases were reported since the previous day, a significant drop since about a fortnight ago when the number of people infected by the coronavirus in a day often exceeded 15,000.

    The total number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 since the pandemic struck last year has reached 6.57 lakh.

    More than half of them tested positive in the last one month alone a clear indication of the unprecedented surge witnessed in Bihar during the devastating second wave.

    Nonetheless, the positivity rate which had crossed 15 per cent earlier this month, has plummeted to 4.75 per cent.

    The number of active cases, which had for days remained more than one lakh last month, has also come down to 69,697.

    For breaking the chain of infection, the state has been under a full lockdown, clamped by the Nitish Kumar government initially for the period May 5-11 which was later extended till May 25.

    The number of COVID-19 patients in the state who have, so far, recovered is 5.84 lakh.

    The testing rate was cranked up in the state nearly two months ago when the government anticipated a spike especially in the wake of the return of migrants on a large scale from other states where they lost their homes and jobs because of lockdowns.

    In the last 24 hours, 1.25 lakh samples were tested.

    A total number of samples tested so far is 2.81 crore.

    Meanwhile, a mobile application aimed at keeping track of the condition of those staying in home isolation after testing positive was launched here by the chief minister, who also conducted a virtual inspection of community kitchens run by the state government for providing free food to those who can ill-afford it on account of joblessness during the lockdown.

    Administering vaccines is also underway in the state where the government has promised free jabs to the entire population.

    Altogether 92.29 lakh people have taken the shots so far and government sources say the pace of inoculation would pick up with greater availability of vials and easing of travel restrictions.

  • 89 more COVID fatalities rattle Bihar; positivity rate, active caseload decline

    By PTI
    PATNA: Bihar was on Sunday rattled by 89 more COVID-19 fatalities, though its active caseload and the number of cases reported in a day continued to decline, leading to further improvement in the rate of recovery and a drop in the positivity ratio.

    According to the health department, the death toll has now reached 3,832, an increase of more than 1,000 since the beginning of this month when the state went under a lockdown to contain the raging second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The number of fresh cases was 6,894, the first occasion in the past several weeks when the figure was less than 7,000.

    The total number of cases confirmed in the state since the beginning of the pandemic more than a year ago is 6.51 lakh.

    The intensity of the recent outbreak can be gauged from the fact that more than half of the coronavirus infections in Bihar so far have been reported in the past one month.

    On the brighter side, 5.72 lakh people have recovered and the number of active cases, which was a week ago more than one lakh, has come down to 75,089.

    The recovery rate was at 87.89, a nearly 10 per cent increase compared with a fortnight ago.

    The positivity ratio has come down from about 15.1 per cent to 5.7 per cent in two weeks.

    The number of samples tested in the state, which has a population of about 13 crores, is 2.80 crore.

    Vaccination drive is also underway, and with more than 90 lakh of its people having received the jabs, including 7.25 lakh in the economically productive and outgoing age group of 18-44 years, the state hopes the situation to improve further in foreseeable future.

  • Bihar reports 74 more COVID deaths, 9,863 new cases

    By PTI
    PATNA: Bihar’s COVID-19 death toll went up to 3,503 on Wednesday after 74 people succumbed to the disease, while 9,863 fresh positive cases pushed the tally to 6,22,433, the health department said.

    It said that 12,265 recovered from the infection, taking the total number of cured people to 5,19,306.

    The state currently has 99,623 active cases.

    Of the fresh fatalities, 15 were reported from Patna district, eight from West Champaran and six each from Muzaffarpur and Nalanda districts.

    The 9,863 new COVID cases include 506 from Muzaffarpur district, 523 from Nalanda and 487 from Samastipur.

    A total of 1,11,740 samples were tested for coronavirus in Bihar during the last 24 hours, taking the total number of such tests to 2,76,33,066, the health department said.

    Meanwhile, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said that the government is upgrading the infrastructure in hospitals by increasing the number of beds, ventilators and other items following the surge in cases in the second wave of the pandemic.

    He said that lockdown has been imposed in Bihar from May 5 to 15 and the cooperation of people is needed for the success of the restrictive measure.

    “I appeal to all of you to wear masks, keep a distance of two yards, keep hands clean and get a vaccine when the time comes. I am confident that together, we will definitely get rid of this disease,” the chief minister said in a voice message.

  • Bihar: No money for cremation, kin bury COVID victim’s body in family land

    Express News Service
    PATNA: A video purportedly showing a Covid-19 victim’s body being dumped into the bank of the Saura river in Bihar’s Katihar district has gone viral on social media.

    Katihar’s District Magistrate Udayan Mishra has verified the video clip and found it to be true. The incident took place on May 7.

    “Soon after we have learnt about the incident, an inquiry panel headed by city’s Magistrate, SDO and SDPO of the area, was constituted who later visited the Bheria Rahika village on Sunday. During the investigation, it was found that the person died of Covid on May 6,” Mishra told this newspaper.

    “As per the statement of the deceased’s brother, his family did not have enough money to cremate the body. Moreover, the villagers told the family members that the cremation of the Covid victim could be hazardous to health for others. Hence, they had dug an 8 feet deep pit in their own land to bury the body,” Mishra said.

    “After the patient, a wage labourer, had succumbed to Covid in Sadar hospital, the hospital administration then sent the body in an ambulance to the village on May 7. During the process of burial, some onlookers filmed it and made it viral on social networking platforms,” Mishra said.

    The DM denied that the body was dumped by the ambulance driver Vishnu Jha and other staff of the hospital.  

    “When we spoke to the victim’s son, he admitted that the family was unaware that the government pays for the last rites of a Covid-19 patient and that’s why they had decided to bury the body,” the DM said.

    He added that the body was not exhumed as per the consent of family members and the Covid-19 guidelines. He said the family will get compensation of Rs 4 lakh as announced by the state government for Covid-19 victims.

    Seventy more people succumbed to COVID-19 in Bihar raising the states death toll on Sunday to reach 3,282 though a drop in the positivity rate also caused the active caseload to decrease and the recovery rate to improve.

    According to the state health department, 11,259 fresh cases were reported compared with the recent past when the number of people testing positive, on an average, stood between 13,000 and 15,000 on a daily basis.

    The number of active cases now stood at 1,10,804, a fall of nearly 5,000 in the past few days.

    The recovery rate, which remained under 80 per cent for a couple of weeks, has also reached 80.71 per cent.

    Altogether 5.91 lakh people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Bihar ever since the pandemic struck in March last year.

    Out of them, 4.77 lakh have recovered.

    The day also saw vaccination for those aged between 18 and 44 years of age getting underway.

    Although it was scheduled to begin on May 1, a delay in supply of vials caused the process to be deferred by a week.

    The department could not provide the number of people in the aforesaid age-group who received jabs on the inaugural day.

    The number of people aged above 45 and those in professions like healthcare, who have been vaccinated in the state, has crossed 80 lakhs.

    Video goes viral on social media

    A video of the body being dumped into the bank of the Saura river in Bihar’s Katihar district had gone viral on social media.

    “As per the statement of the deceased’s brother, his family did not have enough money to cremate the body. The villagers told the family that the cremation of the Covid victim could be hazardous to health for others. Hence, they had dug an 8 feet deep pit to bury the body,” the DM said.

    (With PTI Inputs)

  • Bihar: No money for cremation, kin bury COVID victim’s body in family land

    Express News Service
    PATNA: A video purportedly showing a Covid-19 victim’s body being dumped into the bank of the Saura river in Bihar’s Katihar district has gone viral on social media.

    Katihar’s District Magistrate Udayan Mishra has verified the video clip and found it to be true. The incident took place on May 7.

    “Soon after we have learnt about the incident, an inquiry panel headed by city’s Magistrate, SDO and SDPO of the area, was constituted who later visited the Bheria Rahika village on Sunday. During the investigation, it was found that the person died of Covid on May 6,” Mishra told this newspaper.

    “As per the statement of the deceased’s brother, his family did not have enough money to cremate the body. Moreover, the villagers told the family members that the cremation of the Covid victim could be hazardous to health for others. Hence, they had dug an 8 feet deep pit in their own land to bury the body,” Mishra said.

    “After the patient, a wage labourer, had succumbed to Covid in Sadar hospital, the hospital administration then sent the body in an ambulance to the village on May 7. During the process of burial, some onlookers filmed it and made it viral on social networking platforms,” Mishra said.

    The DM denied that the body was dumped by the ambulance driver Vishnu Jha and other staff of the hospital.  

    “When we spoke to the victim’s son, he admitted that the family was unaware that the government pays for the last rites of a Covid-19 patient and that’s why they had decided to bury the body,” the DM said.

    He added that the body was not exhumed as per the consent of family members and the Covid-19 guidelines. He said the family will get compensation of Rs 4 lakh as announced by the state government for Covid-19 victims.

    Seventy more people succumbed to COVID-19 in Bihar raising the states death toll on Sunday to reach 3,282 though a drop in the positivity rate also caused the active caseload to decrease and the recovery rate to improve.

    According to the state health department, 11,259 fresh cases were reported compared with the recent past when the number of people testing positive, on an average, stood between 13,000 and 15,000 on a daily basis.

    The number of active cases now stood at 1,10,804, a fall of nearly 5,000 in the past few days.

    The recovery rate, which remained under 80 per cent for a couple of weeks, has also reached 80.71 per cent.

    Altogether 5.91 lakh people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Bihar ever since the pandemic struck in March last year.

    Out of them, 4.77 lakh have recovered.

    The day also saw vaccination for those aged between 18 and 44 years of age getting underway.

    Although it was scheduled to begin on May 1, a delay in supply of vials caused the process to be deferred by a week.

    The department could not provide the number of people in the aforesaid age-group who received jabs on the inaugural day.

    The number of people aged above 45 and those in professions like healthcare, who have been vaccinated in the state, has crossed 80 lakhs.

    Video goes viral on social media

    A video of the body being dumped into the bank of the Saura river in Bihar’s Katihar district had gone viral on social media.

    “As per the statement of the deceased’s brother, his family did not have enough money to cremate the body. The villagers told the family that the cremation of the Covid victim could be hazardous to health for others. Hence, they had dug an 8 feet deep pit to bury the body,” the DM said.

    (With PTI Inputs)

  • Bihar lockdown: Rush to postpone weddings, many shed ‘band-baajaa-baaraat’ grandeur

    By PTI
    PATNA: There is a rush to cancel or postpone weddings in Bihar, while many are still going ahead sans the ‘band-baajaa-baaraat’ as the state went into an 11- day lockdown amid the COVID crisis.

    There were a number of auspicious dates between May 5 and 15 — the lockdown period, and owners of wedding halls said that most of the bookings have been cancelled.

    The state government has allowed only 50 people to take part in the weddings during the lockdown.

    Besides, DJs and procession with ‘band-baajaa’ (orchestra) have been prohibited.

    Further, the local police station has to be informed three days in advance for hosting a wedding, and the function can go ahead only after its clearance.

    Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has also appealed to the people to put off social functions such as weddings in the wake of the surge in COVID-19 cases.

    Kumud Sharma, the manager of the luxury Panache hotel in Patna, told PTI that almost 90 per of the advance bookings for weddings have been postponed.

    “A few people, for whom shifting the date was unavoidable, are going ahead with a simple wedding. Only a handful of guests will be present and there would be no band- baajaa-baaraat,” he said.

    Also, these weddings will be held only after getting permission from the Gandhi Maidan police station, he added.

    Similar is the situation in Maurya Hotel.

    “Majority of the bookings during this period have been moved to future dates,” a senior official of the hotel, which is part of the ITDC chain, said.

    Vijay Sinha, owner of the Masala Junction restaurant- cum-banquet hall in Patna, said that almost all the advance bookings at his property have been put on hold.

    Families that could not postpone the weddings expressed their dissatisfaction with cutting down on the pomp and show.

    “We had planned a grand wedding of our nephew in Aurangabad on May 6. But, it turned out to be a ‘fika samaroh’ (tasteless function) for want of ‘band-baajaa’ and drastically cutting down the guest list,” Ram Bihari Singh, a native of Chulhan Bigha village in Arwal district, said.

    Dharmendra Rai, who attended one such wedding in Maner on the outskirts of Patna, echoed similar views.

    The situation has left decorators and ‘band parties’ or orchestra groups staring at losses.

    “We had four-five bookings per day during this period but all of them have been cancelled,” said Mohd Tajuddin, the proprietor of the famous Patna Bachcha Band.

    Pradeep Kumar, the owner of Shiv Garden banquet hall in Darbhanga, said he had to cancel all the bookings on the request of the families.

    Reports from almost all the districts said thousands of weddings have either been cancelled or postponed.

    Not more than two cars are allowed in a wedding and that also after furnishing an affidavit in favour of obeying all the COVID protocols, said Suman Verma, whose daughter got married in Bhagalpur on Thursday.

  • 11-day lockdown underway in COVID-rattled Bihar as state reels under second wave

    By PTI
    PATNA: An 11-day complete lockdown, imposed in the wake of a state-wide COVID 19 surge on an unprecedented scale, got underway on Wednesday in Bihar where the authorities had a tough time ensuring compliance from people.

    Police personnel had begun patrolling the streets since early in the morning, anticipating heavy rush and overcrowding between 7 A.M. and 11 A.M., the four-hour period during which shops selling vegetables, meat, fish, poultry, and grocery items have been allowed to do business.

    Owners of many shops, not dealing in items deemed as essentials, faced a rude shock as they were made to down their shutters, besides being slapped with fines, by the men in uniform.

    The policemen were also seen striking their canes against the ground at many places to scare away and disperse people who had come out to make purchases and gathered at shops or around hand-pulled vegetable and fruit carts throwing physical distancing norms to the winds.

    Many motorcycle-borne youths, loitering around to enjoy high-speed rides on the deserted streets, tried to brazen it out when stopped by police personnel whom they told with a sheepish grin that they had come out for “hawakhori” (breath of fresh air).

    Some of them ended up being fined and even their vehicles being impounded.

    The luckier ones were let off after being made to undergo, in public, the humiliation of doing squats with their hands grabbing their earlobes.

    Some of the businessmen and residents, whose behaviour was deemed to be recalcitrant, also ended up being arrested.

    The number of arrests made, vehicles seized and amount of money recovered by way of fines is likely to be provided by the state police headquarters by the evening.

    The lockdown from May 5 to 15 was announced by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday on his official Twitter handle, a day after the Patna High Court pressed the panic button and told his government that it will have to pass a judicial order if the state failed to show the resolve to impose restrictions necessitated by the raging “second wave” that has wrought huge devastation across the country.

    Meanwhile, many people complained of alleged high- handedness by the authorities in enforcing the lockdown and claimed that the guidelines issued by the state home department have left plenty of room for ambiguity.

    “We are in the restaurant business. In the morning some police personnel came and ordered us to down our shutters. The guidelines say we can do home delivery of food from 9 A.M. to 9 P.M. but in the same breath, they add that restaurants have to remain closed.”

    ‘Why could they not be more specific and make it clear that our kitchens be allowed to function and our delivery boys be allowed to perform their jobs”, said a Boring Road resident who did not wish to be named.

    A male nurse, residing in Sipara locality who visits Shri Krishna Nagar, about five kilometres away, to attend to an elderly patient, said, “it is not clear whether or not auto rickshaws are allowed to ply.

    During my commute today, I could see the driver of the three-wheeler I rode paying bribes to constables at three places.

    “The burden fell on my shoulders, finally. The autorickshaw driver insisted that I cough up Rs 50 for my daily commute which costs less than half of that. I had to do as he said. But how are we going to survive in this manner? We have limited means”, he said.

  • 13,789 new COVID cases in Bihar; state’s chief post master general dies of virus

    By PTI
    PATNA: Bihar chief post masterr general Anil Kumar has died of COVID, yet another high ranking official succumbing to the deadly virus in the state.

    The officer was undergoing treatment for coronavirus at AIIMS Patna for past few days where he breathed his last at around 1:40 am late last night, sources in the hospital said Saturday.

    Chief Minister Nitish Kumar condoled death of the chief post master general of the state due to COVID.

    The official was among the 82 new fatalities on account of the rampaging virus in Bihar, taking the death toll to 2642 in the state since the outbreask of the pandemic last year.

    The chief minister in his condolence message described the deceased as an efficient officer.

    On Friday, former chief secretary Arun Kumar Singh had died of COVID in a hospital in the state capital.

    Reeling under the impact of killer coronavirus in its second spell, Bihar reported 13,789 new infections, taking the tally to 4,84,106 Saturday.

    Like in the past, Patna was the worst-hit accounting for 3024 new cases.

    West Champaran reported 537 fresh COVID cases while Purnea saw 424 infections and Supual (400).

    The state saw 10,905 recoveries Saturday taking the figure of people getting cured of the disease tO 3,73,261 since the beginning.

    The state has recovery rate of 77.10 per cent.

    There arer 1,08,202 active cases in Bihar at present.

    A total of 95,686 tests of samples took place Saturday while the state has clinically examined over 2.65 crore people for the contagion.

    On the vaccination front, 62,402 citizens took the shots Saturday, while overall 7228280 people have received the jabs in the state so far.

    Sources in the health department said that the third phase of vaccination of people in 18-44 age group could not start Saturday due to non-arrival of additional vaccine stock.

    They said the exercise would start only after arrival of vaccines for the purpose.