Huge spike in COVID cases in West Bengal due to non-compliance of norms during Puja

KOLKATA: West Bengal’s COVID-19 cases witnessed a huge spike, surging for the third day on trot with 846 more people testing positive for the disease, while 12 fresh fatalities pushed the toll to 19,033, a bulletin by the state health department said.

However, health officials are worried that the real count could be much higher as many people have not yet come forward to get tested, particularly non-symptomatic patients, who are carrying the virus and continue to infect others.

Officials have attributed the spike in COVID cases due to the lack of safety protocols and norms followed by people during Durga puja festivities last week.

Of the 846 cases, 242 were recorded in the metropolis North 24 Parganas district accounted for four deaths, Kolkata for three and Hooghly for two. One each fatality was registered in South 24 Parganas, Purba Bardhaman and Birbhum.

The positivity rate improved to 2.10 per cent from Thursday’s 2.52 per cent, the bulletin said.

Since Thursday, 792 recoveries were logged in the state, which raised the total number of those cured of the disease to 15,57,882. The discharge rate stood 98.32 per cent. Bengal currently has 7,577 active cases.

As many as 1,88,42,408 samples have been tested thus far, including 40,303 since Thursday, the bulletin added.

(with inputs from PTI)