Patna, July 4: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who sent his swab for coronavirus testing earlier today, was found negative for the contagious disease. The test results which came late on Saturday confirmed that Nitish has not contracted the virus. The report of other officials and Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi was awaited. RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav Urges for Increased COVID-19 Tests in Bihar.

Nitish, 69, had shared the dias with Legislative Council Chairperson Awadhesh Narayan Singh on July 1, when they attended the oath-taking ceremony of the newly elected MLCs. A day later, Singh tested positive for coronavirus. This prompted the Bihar CM to sent his swab samples for testing as well.

The Chief Minister also asked other officials and Ministers, who came in contact with him over the past 48 hours, to also sent their samples for testing.

Nitish Kumar Tests COVID-19 Negative

Bihar, which has so far reported, 11,460 cases of COVID-19, has drawn flak for allegedly conducting fewer number of tests per population of one million. Even at the reduced pace of testing, pointed out the Opposition, an alarming number of cases are being recorded daily.

As the threat of COVID-19 continues to loom, 12 senior officials of the state have reportedly tested positive for coronavirus. Five major politicians - RJD veteran Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, BJP MLA Jibesh Kumar Mishra, Congress MLA Anand Shankar Singh, RJD MLA Shahnawaz Alam and Minister Vinod Kumar Singh have also contracted the virus.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 04, 2020 11:12 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).