The number of active novel coronavirus cases in Bengal has reached 300 with 32 more people being diagnosed with Covid-19 and six persons cured from the infection.

The 32 new patients belong to Calcutta and four other districts. The death toll from the pathogen stood at 15.

Chief secretary Rajiva Sinha said on Wednesday that the total number of cured patients in the state was 79 with the discharge of the six from hospital in the past 24 hours.

“The 32 new cases were found in the CMC (Calcutta Municipal Corporation) area, Howrah, Hooghly, Asansol (West Burdwan) and Siliguri (Darjeeling)…. Most of these are family contact cases,” said Sinha.

“We believe immediate segregation would help us save many from infection. It has been our strategy from the very start, and we are doing it even now,” he added.

The chief secretary said 855 tests had been conducted in Bengal over the past 24 hours, taking the total number of tests to 7,037.

“We are establishing with facts that low tests and low prevalence (being alleged by the BJP) are not true in Bengal. We have been testing a lot more, yet no spike in the number of positive cases,” said Sinha.

“For instance, till we started testing in Malda (Medical College and Hospital), it was being said there were no cases in Malda only because there was no test. We had 85 tests already there, not one Covid-19 positive case,” he added.

Sinha said the 582 state-run quarantine centres now had 4,695 people, while 31,023 others were in home quarantine.

Helpline

The state government launched a 24-hour toll-free helpline for all health-related queries. Sinha said people could call 1800-313-444-222 or +91-33-2341-2600 to get help regarding such queries.