317 fresh Covid-19 cases in Bengal - 7 infected persons have died over the past 24 hours, taking the total deaths directly linked to the pathogen to 237

Meghdeep Bhattacharyya, TT, 31.05.20, Calcutta: Bengal on Saturday reported 317 fresh Covid-19 cases that pulled the state’s total past 5,000, the sharp rise over the past few days attributed to the return of a large number of migrants.

Seven infected persons have died over the past 24 hours, taking the total deaths directly linked to the pathogen to 237.

The total number of infected people in Bengal now stand at 5,130. The majority of the 1,671 cases reported over the week are suspected to be migrant workers who have returned from other states.

At least 300 — around 95 per cent — of the 317 new cases reported till 9am on Saturday were from districts receiving a large number of returnees, including migrant workers. Calcutta reported 80 of these cases, Howrah 42, North Dinajpur 38, Cooch Behar 32 and North 24-Parganas 30.

As of Saturday, there were 16,152 people in quarantine centres and another 1,25,287 in home quarantine.

“On May 8, just before the mass return of migrant workers began, there were 4,964 people in institutional quarantine and 9,576 in home quarantine. While the institutional quarantine number has increased by over three times, that of home quarantine has gone up by over 13 times,” a minister said. “On May 8, the state had 1,678 coronavirus cases. In the past week alone, 1,671 new cases have been reported,” he added.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has been drawing attention to the Union railway ministry’s allegedly irresponsible and haphazard arrangements for the return of lakhs of stranded migrant workers on Shramik Special trains in a matter of days.