There were 396 new positive cases of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in West Bengal on Friday. This has been a week of huge increase in the number of cases in the state, with over 300 cases on an average every day for the past few days. There were 271 new cases on June 1. The number of new cases on May 31 was 371, on May 30 it was 317, on May 29 it was 277, on May 28 the number was 344, on May 27 it was 183, on May 26 it was 193.
According to officials – who did not want to be quoted – this may be an indication of the impact of the large number of people are coming into Bengal from other states that have high COVID-19 cases. The officials pointed out that the Bengal government had wanted that the trains bringing in people from other states should be sent gradually instead of several trains at the same time. “Under the impact of the cyclone Amphan, a lot of manpower and infrastructure had to be channelised and the state was not prepared to handle the pressure of so many trains coming together with lakhs of people, from outside,” the official said.
People coming in from other states are being taken to state-run quarantine facilities and also for tests. Those who are testing negative are being sent home for spending 14 days of quarantine in their home. Those who are testing positive are being sent to hospitals. According to the officials, this requires stern and lengthy monitoring procedure and thus the Bengal government wanted the entire process to be slowed down, “though the persons keen on returning back to the state have every right to do so”. “We simply wanted the process to be slowed down and planned well,” the official said.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday – when the highest number of people tested positive so far on a single day – 10 more persons died, taking the total number of COVID-19 deaths in the state to 263. Another 72 deaths of COVID-19 positive cases have taken place due to co-morbidities. The total number of positive cases in Bengal has gone up to 6,168. Currently, the number of active cases in the state is 3,423. On Tuesday, 104 more persons were discharged from hospitals, taking the discharge rate to 39.04 per cent.
A total of 9,495 samples were tested on Tuesday, taking the total number of samples tested to 2,22,726, with the percentage of positive cases out of the samples tested being 2.77 per cent.
The number of laboratories conducting tests across the state is now 41. A total of 8,785 beds have been earmarked in the 69 dedicated Covid-19 hospitals throughout the state, with an occupancy rate of 19.2 per cent of COVID-19 beds, according to the health bulletin of the state health department.
[Image representational]
Comments are closed.