Patna: A young IAS officer posted as SDM in Nalanda district, the home district of the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, tested positive for coronavirus and was admitted in an isolation centre on Thursday. Two days ago, an IPS officer posted as an AIG at Vallah Bhawan too had tested positive during a random examination. Part of the newly inaugurated building which houses the Home department has been sealed and the office has been closed till Monday morning.
According to the principal secretary of the health department, Sanjay Kumar, the young officer posted as a sub-divisional magistrate is one of the three subdivisions in Nalanda district. His samples were sent to the Rajendra Medical Research Institute on Tuesday and a report was received on Thursday. The officer did not have any travel history in the recent past. He must have contracted the virus from infections from locals. Health department officials contacted 46 people who were in contact with the young IAS officer and took their samples. The officer has been sent to an isolation centre opened at a hotel at Biharsharif.
The officer of 2017 batch of IAS is from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. His father is a class three employee in UP government and mother, a primary school teacher.
Office of the home department at Vallabh Bhawan was shut on Thursday morning for sanitisation and employees were told to resume their duties from Monday. An AIG of police working in the Vallabh Bhawan had tested positive. A security guard from Bihar Military Police's 14th battalion too had tested positive. He was attached with the AIG as his personal bodyguard.
Cremation of the COVID-19 affected people has become a law and order problem in Patna. On Thursday, the residents of the Bans Ghat colonies and Diaras(settlements near the banks of Ganga) protested the cremation of a woman of Alamganj. She was declared dead at Nalanda Medical College Hospital following the infection. Heavy police presence failed to convince the protesting people about no threat to their lives and they dispersed only when the body was taken to another part of the Ganga at an isolated place, far away from the cremation ground.
The number of COVID-19 positive cases spiked to 970 on Thursday with 13 new cases reported from Khagaria and Purnia districts. Four affected people in Khagaria district were from the 18-25 years age group. One of them is from Alauli, the home village of the union minister, Ram Vilas Paswan. Other three are from Chandpura, Jhalkara and Bamdaur villages. Nine new patients from Purnia are from Rupauli and Islampur.
