Patna, May 12 (IANS): The second wave of coronavirus has taken lives of 40 nurses in Bihar so far, due to lack of basic facilities which they needed during duty in a pandemic, the Bihar Medical and Health Employee Association said on Wednesday.

"As of now, 40 nurses have died during duty in different hospitals in Bihar this year. As per Covid protocol, the Health Department is taking the services of nurses in three shifts. Unfortunately, the department has not facilitated proper accommodation and food during duty hours in hospitals. As a result, the immunity level of nurses decreases and they were infected with the deadly virus," Association General Secretary Vishwanath Singh.

The highest deaths are reported in Patna district, he said.

"There are 30,000 nurses and 15,000 ANM employees working round the clock during the pandemic in various hospitals in Bihar. Majority of them are infected after they come in contact with corona-infected patients during the second wave of the corona pandemic," Singh said.

Meanwhile, cases are gradually reducing in Bihar due to strict lockdown imposed by the state government.

As per Health Department data, positive cases came down below the 10,000 mark in the state for the first time after 22 days. Besides, cases have been reducing for the last nine days.

On Wednesday, the Health Department conducted 111,740 tests in the last 24 hours and 9,863 persons were detected positive. While on April 19, 7,487 cases were registered, in the period between April 19 to May 11, the positive cases were above the 10,000 mark, and on some days, even reached 15,000.

Patna recorded 977 cases on Wednesday. Only two other districts -- Nalanda and Muzaffarpur -- have over 500 cases, at 523 and 506, respectively. The other 35 districts have less than 500 cases.