Patna, Jul 30 (PTI) Twelve COVID-19 fatalities confirmed in the last 24 hours raised the death toll in Bihar to 285, while the tally crossed 48,000 with the detection of 2,082 fresh cases, the health department said on Thursday.

The state also crossed the threshold of 20,000 tests in a day, for the first time.

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The state government, which had announced a lockdown effective till July 31 in view of the recent spurt in cases, decided not to extend it but made it clear that there will be restrictions on activities in localities outside containment zones for another fortnight.

Of the 12 fatalities, Bhojpur district accounted for four deaths, while three were reported from Rohtas and one each from Jehanabad, Munger, Nalanda, West Champaran and Vaishali, the health department said.

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The coronavirus tally has reached 48,001 with 1,445 cases reported on July 29 and another 637 on the previous days but compiled later on.

Of these, 410 were reported from Patna district alone. The district has, till date, reported 8,229 cases, more than 20 per cent of the state's aggregate.

Out of the 38 districts in the state, 19 have reported more than 1,000 cases each.

Altogether 31,673 patients have recovered from the disease and the states recovery rate is 65.98.

The number of tests conducted in the last 24 hours is 20,801. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar instructed officials a couple of weeks ago that the number of testing, which then stood at around 10,000 samples per day, be doubled.

The total number of tests conducted till date is 5.25 lakh.

Meanwhile, CPI state secretary Satyanarayan Singh tested positive for COVID-19 and was admitted to AIIMS, Patna in a critical condition.

In a statement, the party said that the leader, who is in his late 70s, needed plasma therapy and requested donors to come forward to help him.

Meanwhile, the state home department came out with a notification stating that government and private offices, closed during the state-wide lockdown that came into force on July 16, will be allowed to resume functioning with 50 per cent of staff strength.

Commercial establishments, barring shopping malls, will be "allowed to function normally".

The notification also made it clear that places of worship will "remain closed for public" and educational and coaching institutes will conduct online classes only.

Night curfew from 10 pm to 5 am will remain strictly in place across the state.

District authorities "cannot dilute any of these restrictions" though they may prohibit certain activities outside containment zones based on their assessment of the situation, the notification said.

The restrictions will remain in force from August 1 to 16, it added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)