COVID-19 Update: Bihar elections to be the first in pandemic

Bihar will be going to the polls in what is the first election amid the ongoing novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

• The Bihar Legislative Assembly Elections 2020 will be held in three phases on October 28, November 3 and 7. The counting of votes and the results will be declared on November 10, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora announced in New Delhi September 25, 2020.
• The elections will be held in fewer phases to minimise the movement of security personnel, for their wellbeing.
• There were 160,178 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Bihar as on 8 am September 25, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW). There were 13,015 active cases and 878 deaths.
• The state had 174,266 confirmed cases according to private aggregator Covid19India, of which 13,687 were active ones. There were 878 deaths and 159,700 recoveries.
• The number of tests per million in Bihar is 47,482, which is more than the national average of 47,337, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has said.
• Former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi has been shifted to the Intensive Care Unit of Guwahati Medical College and Hospital following a drop in his oxygen level. He had tested positive for COVID-19 on August 26.
• The first batches of Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V have entered ‘civil circulation’ in capital Moscow, state media reported September 24.
• More than 10 per cent of young, healthy people who develop severe COVID-19 have misguided antibodies that attack the immune system itself instead of the virus. Another 3.5 per cent may carry a specific kind of genetic mutation, according to a new study by researchers from Rockefeller University in the United States.
• Nearly 70 million tests have been conducted for COVID-19 so far in India, the MoHFW said September 25.
• Phase-III trials of the COVID-19 vaccine COVAXIN in Uttar Pradesh will start in Lucknow and Gorakhpur from October, the Uttar Pradesh governement has said.
• The administration of Jodhpur district has imposed a lockdown that will start from 10 pm September 25 and will continue till 5 am September 28. The decision has been taken as the district has recently seen a surge in COVID-19 cases. 

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