New high in Covid cases, deaths and tests -Total number of patients touched 20,488 and death toll crosses 700 to reach 717

Meghdeep Bhattacharyya   |   TT   |   Calcutta   |   04.07.20   : Bengal on Friday set three new 24-hour records on the Covid-19 front with highest number of cases at 669, deaths at 18 and tests at 11,053.

While total number of patients went past the 20,000 mark to touch 20,488, the death toll crossed 700 to reach 717.

The previous record in the new intra-day cases was 652 on June 30. The highest number of deaths before had been 17 on June 10 and tests were 10,563 on June 28.

In just one week, the state reported 4,298 new cases and 101 deaths.

“Over 600 new cases have been reported daily since Monday. This is a considerable rise…. In a positive, we also logged 3,036 recoveries in seven days,” said a Bengal minister. The total number of active coronavirus patients in Bengal now are 6,200. The figure was 5,039 a week ago.

Of the 669 new cases, nearly 99 per cent were reported from districts that witnessed mass return of migrant workers and others stranded elsewhere in the country during the initial stages of the lockdown. Calcutta alone reported 182 cases.

Around 6.22 lakh people have successfully completed quarantine and they include over 2.54 lakh people who came back to Bengal by Shramik Special trains. Barely 72,000 people remain in quarantine now.

“With 13,571 patients cured of the pathogen, our recovery rate keeps rising. Now, it is 66.23. A week ago, it was 65.07. The rate was 39.64 a month ago. The national rate right now is 60.61,” said the minister.

The state’s total test count is now 5,19,054, with 5,767 tests per million. “We have had a quantum leap in testing and are on course to get past 6 lakh by July 10 or 11. On May 19, we had 1 lakh tests,” said the minister.

Owing to the considerable rise in new cases, the positive confirmation rate — the percentage of people found infected among those tested – deteriorated from 3.61 a week ago to 3.95 per cent.

Of the 717 deaths, Calcutta alone accounted for 402.

The state government reported 553 deaths or 77.1 per cent as those with comorbidity “present”.

Of 10,594 beds for Covid-19 treatment at 79 dedicated hospitals in Bengal, 23.25 per cent are occupied now.

While Bengal’s overall mortality rate stood at 3.49 per cent, that of the city was 6.07. The national rate now is 2.88 per cent.

“The mortality rate, despite the surge in new cases, has improved in a week from 3.8 to 3.49 for the state, and from 6.72 to 6.07 for Calcutta. A month ago, it was 5.3 for the state and 9.56 for the city,” said the minister.