Bihar government has come up with a scheme to grant financial incentives to health department doctors and workers in the state. The government said the “encouragement incentive” will be equivalent to employees’ one month’s basic salary and will likely cost Rs 252.54 crore to the state exchequer, according to news agency ANI.

The move to encourage health department staff has been announced at a time when the state is battling the dual challenges presented by the floods and a spurt in Covid 19 cases.

The health infrastructure in the state is under pressure as the sharpest rise was seen in Covid 19 cases in the state with over 3,000 cases including the 2,500 reported in the 24 hours period ending Saturday. The death toll shot up by 14 to cross 300 casualties.

For Coronavirus Live Updates

According to the bulletin issued by the department on Saturday, the death toll had reached 312 while the total number of coronavirus cases stood at 54,508. The number of active cases was 18,723.

Patna is the worst affected district with a total of 9,358 positive cases registered so far including 3,664 active cases. Other districts reporting high numbers of cases are Bhagalpur (2,638), Muzaffarpur (2,459), Nalanda (2,266), Gaya (2,208) and Rohtas (2,178).

Meanwhile, the state continues to boast of a healthy recovery rate of 65.08 per cent and the total number of people who have been cured of the coronavirus so far is 35,473, including 1,823 who were declared fit in the last 24 hours.

Watch: Sushant death: Cops look for flatmate as Bihar dy CM blames ‘Bollywood mafia’

The flood situation in the state worsened on Sunday as fresh areas were inundated taking the total number of affected people across 14 districts to 53.67 lakh, according to the information released by the disaster management department. The number of people affected by the deluge has gone up by 4.62 lakh since Saturday

13 lives have been lost in flood-related incidents so far in the state.