Bihar BJP chief Sanjay Jaiswal, who tested positive for coronavirus a week ago, has admitted that he is paying the price for not wearing a mask. "Please do not repeat the mistake of not wearing the mask... I did in front of some VIPs and paid the price," he said in his Facebook post.
Mr Jaiswal tested positive after a visit to Patna, where he attended the party's regional meeting. He is now recovering in his hometown Bettiah.
The Patna office of the BJP, the party headquarters in the state, turned a hotspot last week as several leaders -- including organisational secretary Nagendra Nath, general secretary Devesh Kumar and vice-president Radhamohan Sharma -- tested positive for coronavirus.
The party put the number of affected leaders at 25.
The outbreak was detected on a day the state government announced a complete lockdown in the urban areas of the state until 31 July.
The decision was taken after the number of coronavirus cases in the state moved close to 20,000. More than 1,000 people testing positive on an average every day.
On Thursday, Bihar recorded 1,625 new patients over a 24-hour period.
In the same period, the country recorded the highest single-day spike of nearly 46,000 fresh cases.
Data from the health ministry showed 45,720 coronavirus cases were recorded over the last 24 hours. The total number of cases has crossed 12 lakh now and stands at 12,38,635. The number of fatalities rose to 29,861 with the addition of 1,129 deaths.
Maharashtra has the highest number of coronavirus cases in the country, followed by Tamil Nadu and Delhi.
