Bihar minister, 2 senior IAS officers test positive

PATNA: A day after a 2008-batch IAS officer died of Covid-19, the state’s social welfare minister Madan Sahni and two senior IAS officers – home department additional chief secretary Chaitanya Prasad and finance department principal secretary S Siddharth— tested positive on Wednesday.
“While Chaitanya Prasad has been admitted at AIIMS-Patna, Siddharth is in home isolation,” health department’s principal secretary Pratyay Amrit told TOI on Wednesday.
Earlier on Tuesday, IAS officer Vijay Ranjan, posted as director in the Panchayati Raj Department, died of Covid-19 in Patna.
The state’s social welfare minister Madan Sahni, too, has isolated himself at his official residence.
“Sahni had gone to Baidyanath Dham at Deoghar in Jharkhand a few days ago. After returning from Babadham, he was suffering from fever. During the test, he was found to be Covid-19 positive. The doctor has advised him to remain in home quarantine till full recovery,” a close aide of Sahni told TOI over the phone on Wednesday.
Health department additional secretary Ravi Shankar Choudhary, too, has tested positive and has been admitted at the AIIMS-Patna, Amrit said.
Bihar seeks 50 Army doctors for Bihta Covid hosp: Because of the alarming rise in the Covid-19 positive cases, the Bihar government on Wednesday urged the defence ministry to depute at least 50 Army doctors at the dedicated Covid-19 hospital at Bihta to get the 500-bed hospital fully functional.
Pratyay Amrit said the dedicated hospital at Bihta is currently functioning with only 50 beds. The state government provides nurses and other medical staff at the Bihta hospital while the Army provides its doctors.
“I have sent a letter to the defence secretary urging him to depute at least 50 doctors from the Army so that all 500 beds at the central government’s dedicated hospital could be utilized,” Amrit told TOI.
He said a team of DRDO on Wednesday visited the Bihta hospital to assess the requirements. “Once the army deploys its doctors, the state government will deploy its nurses and other staff,” Amrit said, adding, once all 500 beds at the hospital become functional, it would ease the load from the Patna-based dedicated hospitals.