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.
