News Analysis India

Tag: West Bengal covid cases

  • West Bengal in throes of Covid, one in two tested has the disease

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: With 18,802 fresh cases of Covid-19 reported in West Bengal on Saturday, the state sank deeper into a coronavirus crisis, as capital Kolkata clocked a cumulative weekly positivity rate of over 55 percent ending Friday, government officials said.

    The overall tally, since the pandemic erupted, has gone up to 17,30,759.

    The state’s positivity rate also rose from Friday’s 26.34 per cent to 29.60 per cent, portending a grim battle against the disease ahead, with the Gangasagar fair, a huge congregation of common people and seers having begun today.

    The Calcutta High Court had on Friday given the go-ahead for the fair, an annual event, which is once in a lifetime pilgrimage for many Hindus, but ordered enforcement of strict guidelines to check the spread of the disease.

    It ordered setting up a committee which may recommend to the state a ban on entry to Sagar Island if there is any violation of health safety norms.

    The court also directed the West Bengal government to take a decision to declare the Sagar Island, where the annual fair is held, a “notified area”, a move that will empower the state to take additional measures for safeguarding the health, safety and welfare of the pilgrims.

    The fair will conclude on January 16.

    The city on Saturday recorded 7,337 fresh cases of the infection while neighbouring North 24 Parganas reported 3,286 new cases.

    In Howrah, there were 1,483 new cases, while Paschim Bardhaman reported 1,006.

    There were 19 Covid-19 deaths in Bengal, including seven in Kolkata, officials said.

    Since Friday, 8,112 patients have recovered and gone home.

    So far, 16,48,821 people have recovered from the disease in West Bengal.

    However, the the number of active cases has gone up by 10,671 since Friday to 62,055.

    Meanwhile, a study conducted by the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics has found that 71.2 percent of those afflicted with COVID-19 in West Bengal are infected with the Omicron variant.

  • Most COVID-19 facilities in Bengal to turn into non-Covid units as infections ebb

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: The West Bengal Health Department has decided to turn most hospitals, which were made dedicated COVID-19 facilities, into non-Covid-units, after a decline in the number of fresh cases, a senior official said on Tuesday.

    It has also decided to shut several safe homes that were set up during the peak phase of the pandemic to accommodate infected patients, he said.

    The department has issued a notification to this effect, adding that two Covid hospitals will function in each district.

    There are at least 203 dedicated COVID-19 hospitals in West Bengal – government and private – with 23,947 beds, the official said.

    The state has 200 safe homes with around 11,505 beds.

    As per the directive, 150 dedicated COVID-19 facilities will be turned into non-Covid units and an equal number of safe homes will be shut, he added.

    The state reported 615 fresh infections on Monday, while 14 more people succumbed to the virus.

  • Prolonged poll campaign, new strain led to 48-fold jump in COVID cases in rural Bengal, say experts

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Since the announcement of elections, nearly three months ago till Saturday, West Bengal’s riverine, largely rural hinterland has seen a 48-fold jump in active COVID-19 cases, with medical experts attributing it to the unprotected poll rallies.

    Most medical professionals blame the mass gatherings at election rallies for the huge surge in the disease.

    On February 26, when the Election Commission announced the poll dates, West Bengal’s number of active Covid cases was just 3,343, while it stood at 1.32 lakh on Saturday, a near 40-fold increase.

    However, the spread in districts, other than Kolkata, is far more.

    From a mere 2,183 active cases on February 26, the number of active cases on May 15 has risen to 1.06 lakh, a worrying 48-fold increase.

    “There is no doubt that the reason behind this surge of Covid in rural Bengal is the prolonged election process. The reason is nothing but political and only political,” Dr Amitava Nandi, a senior expert in tropical diseases and formerly of the School of Tropical Medicine (STM), told PTI.

    Elections were held from March 27 till April 29, in an unprecedented eight phases, prolonging the campaign period.

    Many of the districts which saw pitched political battles with leaders extensively touring them such as Hooghly, Purba Bardhaman, Paschim and Purba Medinipur, Nadia, Darjeeling and Murshidabad reported near 100-fold rise in cases during the period.

    Dr Sanjib Bandyopadhyay, community medicine specialist and vaccination supervisor of the Infectious Diseases and Beliaghata General (ID&BG) Hospital blamed the unscientific” holding of elections in eight phases and movement of people including paramilitary forces across state and district boundaries for the surge.

    “If you cannot allow people who had gone to other states to work as migrant labourers to return home here without RT-PCR tests, how have you allowed large numbers of central forces and other people to travel remote areas without any such tests? This has definitely helped in the surge of cases,” he said.

    According to Dr Nandi, the new Bengal strain (B.1.618), the second mutant strain discovered in India, started spreading across the state because of movement of people during the elections.

    “The administration was never prepared for this despite our warnings. Both the central and the state government were complacent as if they had won the battle against corona. They reduced the number of beds in the hospitals, never thought of increasing testing facilities. Then they allowed people to move, migrate without proper tests and flout the safety protocols,” said Dr Hiralal Konar of the Joint Platform of Doctors.

    On Saturday, Howrah reported 1,276 new cases, South 24 Parganas (1,257), Hooghly (1,193), Nadia (1,038), Purba Medinipur (753), Paschim Bardhaman (977) and Darjeeling (662), according to the state health department’s statistics.

    The total number of cases, including recoveries, in West Bengals districts other than Kolkata, also went up from 4.45 lakh on February 26 to nearly 8.64 lakh as of Saturday, May 15.

    The figures may be the tip of the iceberg, given the fact that people in rural areas have limited access to testing facilities.

    North 24 Parganas, wedged between Kolkata and the international border with Bangladesh, has just three government RT-PCR testing centres, whereas it has 26,047 active cases as on Saturday, marginally fewer than the tally for the capital of West Bengal.

    “Definitely there has been under-reporting. Primarily, people are not taking the tests and also there are not adequate tests taking place. And the current RT-PCR tests are sometimes unable to detect the contagion because the virus has genetically mutated,” Dr Nandi said.

    West Bengal at the moment has 115 testing laboratories in different parts of the state with a daily average of around 33,000 tests held daily, as per the state health bulletin.

  • West Bengal logs 751 new COVID-19 cases, total tally at 5,62,072; recovery rate 96.91 percent

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The COVID-19 recovery rate in West Bengal rose to 96.91 percent on Tuesday after 879 more people were discharged from various hospitals in the state, the health department said.

    The toll increased to 9,975 after 18 fatalities were registered in Bengal, the department said in its bulletin.

    At least 751 fresh cases were recorded in the state, taking the tally to 5,62,072. Bengal currently has 7,392 active cases.

    Kolkata accounted for 10 deaths, neighbouring North 24 Parganas four, and one each fatality was reported from South 24 Parganas, Hooghly, Howrah and Nadia, the bulletin said.

    Of the 18 deaths, 13 were due to the comorbidities, where COVID-19 was “incidental”, it said.

    The city also recorded the maximum number of fresh cases at 230, followed by North 24 Parganas at 220, it said.

    As many as 33,024 samples were tested in West Bengal since Monday, taking the total number of such clinical examinations to 74,97,837, the bulletin added.

  • West Bengal reports 612 new COVID-19 cases, total tally at  5,61,321

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: West Bengal’s COVID-19 tally mounted to 5,61,321 on Monday as 612 more people tested positive for the infection, a health bulletin said.

    Sixteen more people, including a Kolkata Police personnel, succumbed to the infection, pushing the state’s coronavirus death toll to 9,957, it said.

    As many as 939 more people have been cured of the disease, taking the recovery rate among the coronavirus patients in the state to 96.98 percent, the bulletin said.

    Kolkata reported the highest number of new cases at 164, followed by North 24 Parganas (162), it said.

    North 24 Parganas reported the highest number of fresh fatalities at six, followed by two in South 24 Parganas and one each in Hooghly and Howrah districts, the bulletin said.

    The state now has 7,538 active cases, while 5,43,826 people have recovered from the disease so far, it said.

    West Bengal has so far tested over 74.64 lakh samples for COVID-19, including 23,313 in the last 24 hours, the bulletin said.

    A 53-year-old police driver succumbed to the infection during the day, taking the coronavirus death toll in the force to 22, a senior officer said.

    Samar Kumar Ghosh, posted at the Headquarter Force, was deputed to Jorabagan police station, he said.

    Over 3,400 policemen of the force have been afflicted with the disease to date. Twenty-four of them are undergoing treatment at present, the officer said.