Patna, June 2 (PTI) COVID-19 second wave continued to be on the wane in Bihar on Wednesday when fewer than 50 fatalities were reported and 1,158 people tested positive for the disease.

According to the health department, the death toll reached 5,268, a rise of 46 since the previous day, while the total number of confirmed cases stood at 7.09 lakh.

The number of recovered COVID-19 patients was 6.91 lakhs. The number of active cases was 12,590 while the recovery rate was 97.48 per cent.

The state, which is at present under lockdown, has been rattled by the devastating second wave by which it was struck in the beginning of April. Since then, nearly 4,000 people have succumbed to the pandemic while close to five lakhs have been infected.

On the vaccination front, 1.05 crore people have received their jabs and state Health Minister Mangal Pandey announced on Twitter that an adequate number of vials has been made available to all districts to speed up the inoculation of those in the economically most productive age group of 18-44 years.

Altogether 16.11 lakh people in the aforementioned age group have received the jabs since May 8.

Meanwhile, clinical trial of COVAXIN on minors has begun at AIIMS, Patna where three persons aged between 12 and 17 years received the jabs on Tuesday and have since reported no complications, said Sanjeev Kumar, the COVID nodal officer at the hospital.

He said the target was to conduct Phase II trials on 525 minors in the next one month.

(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)