With COVID-19 positive cases increasing everyday in Bihar amid shortage of oxygen, beds and anti-viral drugs in hospitals, the State chapter of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and heads of four government hospitals in Patna have urged the government to impose a 15-day lockdown.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday made a round of some parts of Patna for the second time to take stock of the restrictions followed by the people and the administration.
“The medical experts’ view must be taken into consideration. IMA, Bihar chapter, urges government to impose 15 days’ lockdown in the State to curb the surge of COVID-19”, Ajay Kumar, vice-president of IMA, Bihar chapter, said.
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Similarly, heads of four government hospitals of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Patna, Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS), Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) and Nalanda Medical College and Hospitals (NMCH) too have urged the government for a similar lockdown.
“If lockdown were imposed earlier, situation would have been more in control,” said Binod Kumar Singh, superintendent of the NMCH, while, PMCH principal Vidyapati Choudhary appreciated restrictions imposed by the Bihar government, “but lockdown would bring the situation much in control”, he said. N.R. Biswas of the IGIMS said that “there should be 15 days lockdown imposed immediately in Bihar” and the AIIMS, Patna director, P.K. Singh too supported his view.
Meanwhile, the Bihar government has declared all accredited and approved by district public relation departments journalists as frontline workers and directed officials concerned to ensure vaccination of all journalists on priority basis.
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The Chief Minister is expected to hold meetings with members of the crisis management group on May 4 to take a decision on lockdown. Earlier some Opposition leaders too had demanded that lockdown should be imposed “to break the chain”.
On May 10, the government is scheduled to appoint 1,000 doctors through “walk-in” interview following new challenges of COVID-19.
On Sunday, Ashok Modi, younger brother of former Deputy Chief Minister and BJP Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Modi, chief post master general Anil Kumar, and poetess Shanti Jain died due to COVID-19 in Patna.
As many as 13,534 new positive cases were reported in the State with 97 deaths in last 24 hours. Patna district reported the highest number of new infected cases on Sunday with 2,748 persons. The recovery rate so far has been 77.36%.