Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, state ministers to deliberate on extending lockdown

As Bihar grapples with a high number of coronavirus cases, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will hold a meeting today with top ministers to deliberate on extending the current lockdown in the state. Bihar on May 4 had imposed a lockdown till May 15 which was extended till May 25.

According to a PTI report, the COVID-19 situation continued to be grim in Bihar on May 23 as improvements in rates of infection and recovery notwithstanding, over 100 fatalities were reported and the death toll surged past the 4,500-mark.

Bihar now has 40,691 active cases, a sharp drop since a few weeks ago when it was in excess of one lakh, while 6.44 lakh people have recovered from the virus so far.


The Nitish Kumar government has also taken a grim view of the reports of black fungus infections in COVID survivors, which have become endemic in states like Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh and a few instances of which have also come up in Bihar.

On Saturday, the state government notified black fungus under the Epidemic Diseases Act with instructions to civil surgeons of all the 40 districts that they submit daily reports of mucormycosis infections in their respective areas of jurisdiction.