COVID-19 third wave has already begun in Bihar, warns CM Nitish Kumar

Nitish Kumar said that Bihar is already in the midst of a third wave of the Coronavirus pandemic. The Bihar Chief Minister reportedly issued the warning while addressing the Indian Medical Association's (IMA) 96th national conference.

Patna: Amid the alarming rise in the COVID-19 and Omicron cases in the country, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has warned that the third wave of the pandemic has already begun in the state. 

Importantly, the Bihar Chief Minister is one of the top National Democratic Alliance leaders to have openly acknowledged the presence of a third COVID wave. 

Nitish said that Bihar is already in the midst of a third wave of the Coronavirus pandemic. The Bihar Chief Minister reportedly issued the warning while addressing the Indian Medical Association's (IMA) 96th national conference.

Kumar, however, said that the Bihar government is fully prepared and doing everything to tackle the pandemic. He said that the state’s "health department is busy improving facilities at the hospitals as per the guidelines issued by the central and state governments."

So far, Bihar has not detected a single case of the new COVID-19 variant Omicron, which was first identified in South Africa. But, the country's overall Omicron tally has crossed the 700-mark.

The state is seeing a steady rise in COVID-19 cases. Currently, Bihar has 117 active cases of the Coronavirus, according to mygov.in data. On Tuesday, the state government ordered the closure of parks from December 31 to January 2 due to COVID-19.

Bihar Chief Minister had earlier on Saturday ruled out the probability of bringing in restrictive measures in the state, amid rising cases of the new Omicron variant of coronavirus in the country, which led neighbouring states such as Uttar Pradesh to go in for night curfews.

"Yahan abhi koi avashyakta nahin hain" (it is not needed here as of now) was the terse reply of Kumar when he was asked about night curfews being introduced by the Yogi Adityanath administration in UP.

Bihar adopted similar measures when COVID-19 first struck in 2020 and again earlier this year when the second wave of the infection caused devastation. The new variant, considered to be not very severe though highly contagious, has triggered fear of a fresh spike.

States such as Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, besides UP, have gone for measures like prohibitory orders and night curfews.