Bengal Stares at Spike in Covid Cases as Durga Puja Revelry Ends; Officials Blame Protocol Violation

With the end of the state’s biggest revelry, Durga Puja, West Bengal is dealing with a spike in Covid-19 numbers as the tally rose to 15,83,646 on Thursday after 833 more people tested positive for the infection.

Meanwhile, Kolkata Municipal Corporation official attributed the spike to lack of safety protocols followed by people during Durga puja festivities last week. Fourteen new fatalities pushed the death toll to 19,021, a Health Department bulletin said.

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Atin Ghosh, KMC board member in-charge of Health, told reporters that the spike, though anticipated, was caused by a large section of people moving around for puja shopping and pandal hopping without wearing masks and overcrowding at certain spots. “The figures are not that alarming though Covid cases are on steady rise. Many cases are asymptomatic and we have to watch out till next week,” Ghosh explained.

Meanwhile, Kolkata recorded the highest number of new cases at 232, followed by North 24 Parganas at 143, the bulletin said. On Wednesday, a total of 867 cases were reported and the caseload dipped a bit to 833 on Thursday.

However, the daily figure was down to 726 on Tuesday and went up by over 107 on Thursday, according to the bulletin. The state now has 7,535 active COVID-19 cases, while 15,57,090 people have recovered from the disease, including 775 in the last 24 hours.

The percentage of positive cases out of samples tested was 2.52 per cent on Thursday, the bulletin said. The recovery rate in West Bengal stood at 98.32 per cent, it stated. The fatality rate was 1.20 per cent.

Of the 14 deaths, seven were reported from North 24 Parganas and five from Kolkata, among others. A total of 1,88,02,105 samples have been tested in West Bengal so far, the bulletin said.

As many as 33,018 samples were tested for coronavirus on Thursday. A total of 5,92,500 people were inoculated on Thursday as the cumulative figure of those vaccinated went up to 6.88 crore.

(inputs from agencies)

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