Bihar at par with other states on COVID parameters, records 88.98% recovery rate

PATNA: According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Bihar has, till date, registered 1,50,502 COVID-19 cases, including 765 deaths and 1,34,391 recoveries. As per a report by Hindustan Times on Wednesday, September 9, Bihar is at the top of a list of various criteria that assess the coronavirus crisis across states in India. The recovery rate of Bihar stands at 89.98 per cent, which is much higher when compared with the national average of 77.65 per cent.

With just six deaths per million (10 lakh) population, Bihar has the lowest percentage of deaths. Among other states, the state also has the lowest COVID-19 test positivity rate of 0.9 per cent, followed by Gujarat at 1.8 per cent and Uttar Pradesh at 4.3 per cent. In Bihar, the daily growth rate for COVID-19 cases is the lowest at 1.3 per cent, at par with Gujarat and Tamil Nadu against the national average of 2.14%.

Over 1,53,156 lakh samples have been screened in Bihar on September 7, the highest in a single day so far. Earlier, the state had the lowest count of number of tests per million population. Since August 13, the number of tests per day in Bihar has remained close to the 1-lakh mark.

A decrease in the positivity rate has been linked to the increased testing. The majority of tests conducted are rapid antigen-based, which can yield false negative results in upto 40 per cent of all tests. Bihar, however, has conducted RT-PCR tests on a small fraction of the persons it has tested, despite the recommendations from Centre. Of the total 1,51,033 tested (6.55 per cent), only 9,901 samples underwent the RT-PCR test. The Rapid Antigen tests comprised 136,870 samples, while the TrueNat machines conducted another 4,262 tests.