Patna, Aug 1 (PTI) The COVID-19 death toll in Bihar shot up by 14 on Saturday, the sharpest rise seen so far, even as the tally grew by more than 3,000, with over 2,500 cases reported in the last 24 hours alone, the state Health Department said.

According to the bulletin issued by the department, the death toll now stood at 312 while the total number of cases was 54,508, out of which 18,723 were active. The previous day's tally stood at 50,987.

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The increase in tally since the previous day was on account of 2,502 people testing positive for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours and remaining cases being those which were reported earlier but compiled later on.

The fresh fatalities were reported from Patna and Munger (three each), Bhagalpur and Muzaffarpur (two each) Araria, East Champaran, Rohtas and Siwan (one each).

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Patna district accounts for the highest death toll (44), followed by Bhagalpur (30), Gaya (21), Rohtas (17), Nalanda (16), Munger (15) and Muzaffarpur and East Champaran (13 each).

Patna district has so far reported the highest number of cases at 9,358, of which 3,664 are active. Other districts reporting high numbers of cases are Bhagalpur (2,638), Muzaffarpur (2,459), Nalanda (2,266), Gaya (2,208) and Rohtas (2,178).

Meanwhile, the state continues to boast of a healthy recovery rate of 65.08 per cent and the total number of people who have been cured of the coronavirus so far is 35,473, including 1,823 who were declared fit in the last 24 hours.

The testing rate has improved significantly since a month ago when it was under 10,000 per day. The number of samples tested in the last 24 days stood at 28,624. The total number of tests conducted so far is 5.76 lakh.

(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)