Active Covid-19 cases drop for fourth day - Of the 391 new cases, 94% were reported from districts with returnees; Calcutta alone reported 143

Meghdeep Bhattacharyya, TT, 18.06.20, Calcutta: Bengal’s total active Covid-19 cases dropped for the fourth consecutive day on Wednesday — from 5,693 on Saturday to 5,261 — with 505 recoveries in the past 24 hours.

The state logged 391 new cases, which were much less than the recoveries whose rate touched 53.11 per cent.

The first Covid-19 case in Bengal had been recorded exactly three months ago on March 17. The state now has 6,533 recoveries and the total number of coronavirus patients are 12,300.

Bengal recorded 1,991 recoveries since Sunday. A month ago, the state had 1,006 people cured of the disease and the recovery rate was 35.61.

“Active cases have dropped to less than recovered cases (since Tuesday)…. This is very good. This is not highlighted enough,” chief minister Mamata Banerjee said.

Of the 391 new Covid-19 cases reported in 24 hours till 9am on Wednesday, most — over 94 per cent — were from districts experiencing a high volume of influx of migrant workers and others stranded elsewhere in the country during the initial stages of the lockdown. Calcutta alone reported 143 cases.

“The positivity (positive confirmation) rate was 2.7 per cent till May 31, now it is 3.41. Why the increase (deterioration), it need not be explained once again. Still, we are doing alright in terms of the national average. The positivity rate in returnees was well over 10 per cent,” said Mamata.

The death toll from the pathogen reached 506 with 11 people succumbing to the disease in the past 24 hours. The state government reported 358 of the deaths — as those with comorbidity “present”. Calcutta reported the most deaths, at 308.

While the overall mortality rate stood at 4.11, that of the city was 7.53 per cent.

As of Wednesday, there were 81,654 people at 9,360 quarantine centres earmarked for those who returned by Shramik Special trains. At 582 other state-run centres, 11,434 people were lodged. Besides, another 1.48 lakh people were in home quarantine.

Over 3.85 lakh people have already completed quarantine and they include around 1.7 lakh Shramik Special returnees.

“Lakhs and lakhs of people have been completing quarantine successfully,” said Mamata.

With 9,222 Covid-19 tests in the past 24 hours, the total tests touched 3,60,976, or 4,011 tests per million. A month ago, the state had a total of around 93,000 tests or 1,040 tests per million.

“The testing total till the end of April was 16,500, but we kept enhancing capacity. By the end of May, we had over 2 lakh tests. Now, total tests are over 3.6 lakh…. We are, on an average, conducting 9,500 tests a day, this is more than enough,” said Mamata.

She said a door-to-door health survey conducted by the Accredited Social Health Activists and other frontliners — suggested by Nobel laureate economist Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, the head of the chief minister’s global advisory board on Bengal’s Covid Response Policy — had already visited 2.5 crore households in the state many times.

“Other states are taking pride in 1.5 crore, 2 crore visits. Our teams have already completed 16 crore visits. We are, by far, the highest in India,” said Mamata.

“Through the surveys, we tracked down 1.92 lakh cases of influenza-like illnesses and 4,337 severe acute respiratory infections,” she added.

The chief minister has said Bengal now has 77 dedicated Covid-19 hospitals, including 53 private facilities requisitioned for treatment by the government. There are, she said, a total of 10,105 Covid-19 beds, with 22.25 per cent occupancy.

“There are still 8,000-odd unoccupied beds… even as we keep enhancing capacity, planning for eventualities. There are 948 ICU beds, 395 ventilators, 8,000 doctors at work, 9,000 nurses and 460 technicians,” she added.