Patna, Jul 19 (PTI) The COVID-19 death toll in Bihar on Sunday mounted to 179 with two fresh fatalities, while 1,412 new cases pushed the state's tally to 26,379, according to the health department bulletin.

The two deaths were reported from Khagaria and Saran districts, it said.

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Patna has recorded the highest number of 28 deaths so far, followed by Bhagalpur (16), Gaya (13), Darbhanga (10), Muzaffarpur (eight) and East Champaran, Begusarai, Samastipur and Nalanda (seven each).

Of the total 26,379 cases reported in the state so far, 12,401 were detected in the last 10 days.

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The state has been recording over 1,000 fresh cases every day since July 12.

Patna tops the COVID-19 tally in the state with 3,696 cases, followed by Bhagalpur (1,601), Muzaffarpur (1,151), Siwan (1,102), Begusarai (1,076) and Nalanda (1,047).

Bihar now has 9,602 active cases, while 16,597 people have recovered from the disease.

The health department bulletin, however, said the state's recovery rate dropped to 62.91 per cent from 77.52 per cent reported on July 1.

A total of 10,276 samples were tested in the past 24 hours in the state, it said.

Meanwhile, Samastipur District Magistrate Shashank Shubhankar home quarantined himself after some of the staff of his office and confidential branch tested positive for coronavirus.

The state government has started conducting antigen tests in 25 facilities in Patna, eight in Gaya and six in Muzaffarpur, a health department official said.

He said the government will start such tests in all sub-divisional hospitals of Bihar from next Tuesday.

(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)