Bihar CM Nitish Kumar Tests Negative For COVID-19

The Chief Minister’s swab sample was taken after he came in contact with a BJP member of the Bihar legislative council who tested positive for coronavirus

PATNA| Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has tested negative for COVID-19 after he voluntarily gave his swab sample for test on Saturday. The Chief Minister’s swab sample was taken after he came in contact with a senior BJP member of the Bihar legislative council who tested positive for coronavirus disease earlier in the day.

A senior functionary of the health department who requested anonymity said, “Swab samples of all 16 people from the chief minister’s residence have tested negative for Covid-19.” This samples, which tested negative, also included those of four bureaucrats, attached to the chief minister.

A source said deputy superintendent of police rank officer in chief minister Nitish Kumar’s security was believed to have tested positive. CM’s public relations officer, BK Shukla, who, earlier in the evening, had confirmed that Kumar gave his sample for a swab test, did not respond to phone calls.

Kumar had given his nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal samples for a reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, a confirmatory test for Covid-19. A team of microbiology and ENT departments of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences had gone to collect the samples from 1, Aney Marg, which is the designated residence of the CM.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, Bihar assembly speaker Vijay Kumar Chaudhary and a few ministers were among some of the top state leaders who were with the infected BJP leader during the swearing-in ceremony. The Laboratory test result was awaited of deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who, too, had given his sample for COVID test.