Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar tested negative for COVID-19, news agency PTI reported. 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.
CM Nitish Kumar and his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi had attended a function with Singh.
A video of the oath ceremony on July 1 shows the CM seating next to Singh, a BJP leader. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Vijay Kumar Chaudhary was on the other side of the infected leader while Sushil Modi was seated next to the CM.
Awadhesh Singh was admitted to the isolation ward of AIIMS-Patna for treatment after his test report came in. Singh and all his family members had fever, following which samples were collected on Friday by a team of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences.
He is the fifth legislator in the state to have tested positive for COVID-19.
Minister Vinod Kumar Singh and his wife have tested positive for the pathogen, apart from MLAs Jibesh Kumar Mishra (BJP), Anand Shankar Singh (Congress) and Shahnawaz Alam (RJD). Veteran RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, a former Union minister, has been discharged from AIIMS after recovering from the disease.