State’s daily Covid count crosses 200 after almost four months

The daily new Covid cases in Bengal crossed 200 on Wednesday after almost four months and health officials said most cases were from Kolkata and North 24-Parganas.

The health department’s bulletin during the day said one Covid patient had died.

On Wednesday, the state recorded 230 new Covid cases, compared with 135 on Tuesday. Health department officials said the last time the state had recorded more than 200 daily new Covid cases was towards the end of February when the omicron-driven wave was towards its end.

The death was reported from Kolkata, a health department official said. “The patient was suffering from cancer. Covid was an incidental finding,” he said.

The daily case count has been rising rapidly over the past week. On June 8, the state had recorded 85 new cases.

“We have spoken to experts at the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics in Kalyani, who have told us that several variants of the Covid virus could be present across India. However, they said, the disease severity is much less,” the official said.

“People are advised to wear masks and take vaccines, especially booster doses. Those who are having symptoms should isolate themselves.”

He said 30 people who have tested positive for Covid over the last few days are being treated at hospitals. “Five to six of them are requiring oxygen support,” he said.

Another official said the bulk of the cases were from Kolkata and North 24-Parganas. In the last three waves, too, most of the cases were from and around the city.

Private hospitals said Covid tests at their diagnostic laboratories have been returning positive daily over the past few days. “In more than two months, we had only one sample testing positive at our laboratory. But over the last week, five to six samples have been testing positive daily,” said Sudipta Mitra, chief executive of Peerless Hospital.

“However, we don’t have any Covid patients admitted for two-and-a-half months.”

At the RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences, too, tests are returning positive. “Over the last two months, we did not have any positive cases in our laboratory. But for two days a couple of people with mild symptoms have been testing positive daily,” said R. Venkatesh, regional director, east and south, Narayana Health, which runs the RN Tagore hospital. “All the patients are in home isolation.”

Two Covid patients are admitted at AMRI Hospitals Dhakuria. “Both patients are in the general ward and are not requiring oxygen support,” said Rupak Barua, group CEO, AMRI Hospitals.

He said the footfall for Covid vaccines has gone up significantly since the last weekend.