COVID-19 tally breaches 4,000-mark in Bengal with 193 new cases

The number of COVID-19 cases in Bengal crossed the 4,000-mark on Tuesday, with 193 more people testing positive for the disease, state Home Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay said. At least five persons died due to the infection in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll in the state to 211, he said at the secretariat.

The number of active patients in the state thus rose to 2,240, while the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases stands at 4,009, Bandyopadhyay said. Of the fresh cases, three surfaced in Jalpaiguri district, almost two months after the last case was reported from there, the state health department's bulletin said.

Kolkata recorded the highest spike of 58 COVID-19 cases in a single day, while 24 and 21 new cases were reported from neighboring 24 Parganas and Howrah districts, it said. Nineteen cases were reported from Hooghly, 13 from Murshidabad, 10 each from Birbhum and Wes Burdwan, six from East Burdwan, three each from East Medinipore and Nadia and one each from South Dinajpur, North Dinajpur and Darjeeling districts, the bulletin added.

Altogether 72 COVID-19 patients were discharged from various hospitals in the state since Monday evening, raising the number of recoveries in West Bengal to 1,486, the home secretary said. As many as 9,228 samples were tested in the last 24 hours. The total number of samples examined in the state to this date has climbed to 1,57,277, Badyopadhyay said.

Earlier, the state government had attributed the death of 72 coronavirus patients to comorbidities and said COVID-19 in those cases was "incidental".