The COVID-19 death toll in Bihar rose to 16 on Thursday with the sample of a migrant worker, who died in Bhojpur district three days ago upon returning from Maharashtra, coming positive, an official said.
The number of confirmed cases in the state rose to 3,185 with 149 people testing positive on Thursday.
According to Bhojpur District Magistrate Raushan Kumar the deceased, aged 26 years, belonged to Barhara block. He returned from Mumbai on May 25.
The migrant worker had been ill. He died at the Sadar hospital in Arrah a few hours after debording a train from Maharashtra, the district headquarters.
"In accordance with the ICMR guidelines, his sample was collected before the body was cremated. The report has confirmed that he was COVID-19 positive," Kumar said.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases continued to rise across the state at a fast rate.
Begusarai district reported 19 fresh cases, all but two of them females. Eleven cases were reported from East Champaran, the youngest patient being a two-year-old boy, while 13 people tested positive in Nalanda district.
Patna, the worst-affected district, saw its tally jump to 233 from 218 the previous day. Most patients were from Dhanarua block in rural Patna.
Purnea, Nawada, Gaya, Bhagalpur, Vaishali and Bhojpur also reported a significant number of fresh cases.
All 38 districts in Bihar are affected by the COVID-19 outbreak and a dozen of these have tallies over 100. Sheohar, with seven cases, remains the only district with a single-digit tally.
Those who have tested positive in the state include a large number of medical and police personnel besides at least two IAS officers, one of them posted in Nalanda and the other a district magistrate in north Bihar.
However, migrants returning to Bihar since the beginning of this month comprise more than half of the total number of COVID 19 patients.
According to the state health department, since May 3 -- the day after the first Shramik Special tain reached here -- 2,168 migrant workers have tested positive till date, which is more than 80 per cent of the around 2,700 cases reported during the period.
Other than Bhojpur, Patna, Vaishali and Khagaria each reported two cases, while Nalanda, Munger, East Champaran, Sitamarhi, Siwan, Saran, Jehanabad, Begusarai and Rohtas reported one death each.
Altogether, 1050 patients have recovered while 70,275 samples have been tested across the state so far, officials said.