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State hedges bets on easing lockdown after April 14

Apr 06, 2020 06:50 AM IST

PATNA

PATNA

Bihar is adopting a wait and watch policy before it firms up plans to ease the lockdown after April 14.

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Senior health professionals Saturday advised Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar against fully lifting the lockdown, as it would defeat the purpose of containing the fast spreading contagion.

“We are closely monitoring the number of Covid-19 cases, which is doubling every 4-5 days in the country. Fortunately, that is not the case in Bihar, where we have 32 cases as of now. We have screened nearly 4,000 foreigners and are now testing domestic travellers. The daily evolution of the infection trail is complex and possibility of exponential growth poses a great challenge. The following week would determine the post lockdown strategies,” said Sanjay Kumar, Bihar’s principal secretary, health.

Prataya Amrit, principal secretary, Bihar’s disaster management department, too, said it was too early to comment on easing the lockdown.

“We will keep a close watch on hot spots. If cases do not go up, say for example, in Gaya, Siwan, Gopalganj and other districts, having a sizeable migrant population, we may consider easing the lockdown district-wise. If cases are localised in a few blocks, we may even go for block-wise lockdown, while relaxing norms in the district,” said Amrit.

Both Amrit and Kumar are members of Bihar’s crisis management team.

Of the 32 Covid-19 cases detected so far in Bihar, seven are from Munger, followed by Siwan (6), Patna and Gaya (5 each), Gopalganj (3), Nalanda (2), Begusarai, Lakhisarai, Bhagalpur and Saran with one each.

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