11 more deaths, 108 cases in last 24 hours ... 911 are from Calcutta, 379 from Howrah and 243 from North 24-Parganas

Meghdeep Bhattacharyya , TT, 10.05.20, Calcutta: The Bengal government on Saturday reported 11 deaths, 108 Covid-19 cases and 49 hospital discharges in the past 24 hours.

The total number of active cases in the state stands at 1,243. The cumulative total of cases is 1,786 and a total of 372 Covid-19 patients have been discharged following cure. Bengal now has a recovery rate of 20.83 per cent, up from 18 per cent on April 30, home secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay said on Saturday.

Of the 1,786 cases, 911 are from Calcutta, 379 from Howrah and 243 from North 24-Parganas. The 11 deaths took the toll directly because of Covid-19 to 99. Of them, 64 deaths were in Calcutta, and 15 each in Howrah and North 24-Parganas.

The deaths of another 72 Covid-19 positive persons till April 30 had been attributed to co-morbidities by the government. Of those, 52 were in Calcutta, five in Howrah and eight on North 24-Parganas.

As many as 3,601 tests have been conducted in the past 24 hours, taking the total number to 39,368. The number of tests per million people is now 437, up from 183 on April 30.

The percentage of positive cases out of samples tested is 4.54, improved from 4.6 per cent on April 30.

“We are looking at 51 per cent of the Covid-19 cases and 68 per cent of the deaths — direct and co-morbid — from Calcutta. The city now has 56 per cent of the state’s total containment zones,” said a minister.

“A team led by Firhad Hakim (municipal affairs minister and head of the board of administrators now running the Calcutta Municipal Corporation) is drawing up plans to stem the tide in the city. Also in focus are Howrah and North 24-Parganas,” he added.

Bandyopadhyay said the state now has 5,478 persons in the 582 government-run quarantine centres, besides 14,490 people in home quarantine.

Bengal’s healthcare workers have so far received from the state government 6.69 lakh PPE kits, 3.43 lakh N95 masks, 23.6 lakh regular masks, 1.3 lakh litres of hand sanitiser and 13.5 lakh gloves.

Industry permission

The government has received 15,032 applications for reopening of industries and enterprises. It has approved 6,472 applications and rejected 7,955 over concerns related to containment zones. There are 605 applications still in process.