West Bengal on Sunday reported an all-time high of 24,287 fresh cases of Covid-19 on Sunday, the highest since the first wave of infections in 2020.
The infections detected in the last 24 hours, were 5,485 more than yesterday's, taking the tally to 17,55,046, the health department said. Kolkata city accounted for more than a third of Bengal's Covid infections for the day with a tally of 8,712 cases, compared to 7,337 cases on Saturday. While neighbouring North 24 Parganas with several of Kolkata's sattelite towns including Salt Lake and its infotech and commercial hub accounting for 5,053 cases against the previous day's 3,286 cases.
Other districts reporting large number of infections during the day included the industrial districts of Howrah (1,742) and Hooghly (1,276), near Calcutta.
There were 18 Covid-19 related deaths registered here which pushed the toll to 19,901, it added. Since Saturday, 8,213 recoveries were reported in Bengal, though the discharge rate further slipped to 94.42 per cent. The number of active cases, however, increased by another 16,056 to 78,111.
In the last 24 hours, 71,664 samples have been tested in Bengal taking the total number of such clinical examinations to 2,18,74,205, the bulletin stated.
Bengal on Saturday reported 18,802 Covid-19 cases which included 7,337 (39.02 per cent) from Calcutta.
Although the statewide total is only slightly higher than that of Friday’s 18,213 and the city’s overall count is a bit lower than the 7,484 infections reported a day ago, Bengal had 63,518 tests conducted in 24 hours till 9am on Saturday, compared to 69,158 the day before.
However, the positive confirmation rate rose to 29.6 per cent on Saturday, from 26.34 on Friday. That basically means one out of every three tests in the state returns positive. A positive confirmation rate of up to 5 per cent is considered tolerable in a pandemic. At the peak of the second wave last year, it had climbed to 33 per cent.
The recovery rate slid further to 95.27 from 95.84 per cent on Friday. The national rate is 97.3 now.
On Saturday, there were also 8,112 recoveries and 19 deaths reported, resulting in a rise by 10,671 in the total of active cases to 61,780, the highest since June 3, 219 days ago. Sixteen of the state’s 23 districts reported zero deaths. Calcutta logged seven fatalities.
Omicron is driving the current Covid surge in Kolkata, accounting for about 70% of the total cases, genomic analysis of samples drawn from the infected has confirmed.
“Till Christmas, 15 to 20 per cent of the samples showed the presence of omicron. Things changed between Christmas and new year. We have found omicron in 70% of the samples collected between Christmas and early January from in and around Kolkata,” a senior scientist associated with the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) told The Telegraph.
The consortium has been set up to monitor genomic variations in SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes Covid, in the country.
The findings in Kolkata are drawn from a nationwide study, with focus on the metro cities, that the consortium is conducting since December 20 to assess the spread of omicron in the country.
It has conducted genomic sequencing of 500 samples collected in the period between Christmas and new year to conclude that omicron has overtaken delta as the dominant coronavirus variant in Kolkata, said the scientist. In Delhi and Mumbai too, omicron has become the dominant strain.
