Chief minister Mamata Banerjee made an unscheduled visit to a ration shop at Bhowanipore in Calcutta on Friday to check if the outlet was getting proper supplies. Mamata distributed masks among some residents in the neighbourhood. (Picture sourced by The Telegraph)

Meghdeep Bhattacharyya, TT, 18.04.20, Calcutta: The Mamata Banerjee government on Friday said Bengal had seen an increase of 22 in Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours and the total number of active patients was 162 with four more persons getting cured.

There is no change in the death toll of 10.

Chief secretary Rajiva Sinha said a total of 55 Covid-19 patients had recovered in the state and they included the four new cured cases.

“To Thursday’s 144 total active positive cases, there was an addition of 22 new Covid-19 positive cases. There were four persons released following recovery. So, the total active Covid-19 positive cases, as on Friday, is 162,” Sinha told a news conference at Nabanna in the presence of chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

“With no new deaths, the toll from Covid-19 remains 10,” he added.

The state had conducted 3,811 coronavirus tests at eight Centre-approved laboratories till Thursday. With 401 more tests done since then, the total number is 4,212 now.

Highlighting the figure, the Opposition yet again accused the Bengal government of “under-testing” in a bid to make the situation appear better than it actually was.

The chief minister said only two districts — Calcutta and Howrah — had largely been reporting cases over the past few days and the situation was under control in most other districts now.

“Only these two districts are, therefore, on red alert and strong action has been advised to police and civil administration,” said Mamata, specifically clarifying that by Calcutta, she meant only some wards in the north and the central parts of the city.

“I am not going to give out names of the places…. But Howrah and Calcutta have reported 90 per cent of the cases,” she added.

Mamata pointed out that North 24-Parganas, too, was a red zone and set a 14-day target for converting all the red zones to orange zones.

According to the Union health ministry guidelines, a hotspot — labelled a red zone — would become an orange zone if no new cases are reported for 14 days. It would become an infection-free green zone if it has no cases for 28 days.

Mamata said East Midnapore — classified originally as a red zone — had already become an orange zone and should become green in 14 days. She said out of the state’s 23 districts, 10 were in the green zone with zero cases reported till date.

Chief secretary Sinha said 3,829 people were at the 582 state-run quarantine centres, while 36,071 others were in home quarantine.

The four patients who recovered from Covid-19 are family members or were associated with a woman from Kalimpong who had died from the disease at the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in Siliguri. The four were under treatment at Dr Chhang’s Super Speciality Hospital in Siliguri. The private nursing home has been chosen to treat Covid-19 patients.