Patna, Sep 4 (PTI) Bihar reported 13 COVID-19 deaths taking the death toll to 741 while 1,978 new coronavirus cases were detected in past 24 hours pushing the caseload to over 1.44 lakh, a health department bulletin said. The highest number of over 1.50 lakh samples were tested for the viral infection during the same period, the bulletin said.

The state has witnessed a three-fold jump in its testing capacity in past one month. As many as 51,924 samples had been tested for COVID-19 on August 5.

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Of the 13 deaths, three were reported from Patna, two each from East Champaran and Saharsa and one each from Araria, Arwal, Bhojpur, Buxar, Jehanabad and Vaishali, it said. At present, there are 16,981 active cases in the state. A total of 1,435 patients have recovered in the same period, taking the total number of recoveries to 1,26,411.

The state which has been witnessing an increase in its recovery rate since August 17 recorded a minor decline in the recovery rate when it dropped from 87.91 per cent on Thursday to 87.70 per cent on Friday.

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Of the 1,978 fresh cases, Patna district accounted for the highest number at 258 cases, followed by Muzaffarpur at 134, Araria at 117 and Purnea at 91. Altogether 37.21 lakh samples have been tested for the disease so far.

(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)