Nitish Kumar, 14 Bihar CMO staffers test negative for COVID-19

Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and 14 staffers of the CMO tested negative for COVID-19 on Saturday, official sources said.

According to the sources, one of the 15 staffers in the Chief Minister's Office who had undergone the test was found positive for the infection.

Kumar, earlier in the day, underwent a COVID-19 test after acting Chairman of the Bihar Legislative Council Awadhesh Narayan Singh tested positive for the virus.

He had shared the dais with Singh at an official event here on July 1, officials said.

The swab samples of Kumar and 15 staffers of the CMO were sent to the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) here for COVID-19 test.

"Out of the 16 samples, the chief minister and 14 staffers of CMO have tested negative for COVID-19 while one staffer has been found positive in the test," a source at IGIMS said.

A video of the oath ceremony on July 1 shows the CM sitting next to Singh. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Vijay Kumar Chaudhary was on the other side of the infected leader while Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi was seated next to Nitish Kumar.

Sushil Modi and Chaudhary had also sent their samples for testing.

Singh was admitted to the isolation ward of AIIMS-Patna for treatment after his test report came in, the hospital's nodal officer on COVID-19 Sanjeev Kumar had told PTI.