Covid: Mamata urges caution as new cases hit a high

 The total of cases in Bengal now stand at over 3.02 lakh, including 2.65 lakh recoveries and 5,744 deaths

Meghdeep Bhattacharyya   |   TT   |   Calcutta   |   14.10.20  :  Mamata Banerjee yet again urged people on Tuesday against letting the Covid-19 pandemic worsen during Durga Puja, hours before Bengal reported the highest 24-hour spike in new cases at 3,631.

The total number of novel coronavirus cases in the state has gone past 3 lakh.

Prior to this, Bengal had logged the first 5,000 cases on May 30, 10,000 on June 12, 25,000 on July 9, 50,000 on July 23, 1 lakh on August 11, 1.5 lakh on August 27, 2 lakh on September 13 and 2.5 lakh on September 28.

“Enjoy Durga Puja, all of you. But I would again request each and every one of you, please keep a mask on, at all times. A lot of people will come from everywhere. Protect yourselves. Sanitise yourselves…. Maintain physical distancing, always,” said the chief minister at Nabanna, the state secretariat.

The total of cases in Bengal now stand at over 3.02 lakh, including 2.65 lakh recoveries and 5,744 deaths.

On Tuesday, the state logged 3,185 recoveries and 62 deaths.

On 10 of the 13 days in October so far, the record for the 24-hour rise has been reset.

The recovery rate, which had reached 87.98 a week ago, was 87.84 per cent on Tuesday. The national rate — once lagging behind the state by nearly 10 per cent — is only slightly behind now, at 86.81.

“The protocols must be maintained, even when going to the pandals so that Covid-19 does not spread further. If we are care ourselves, if we are watchful, a lot of it will be taken care of,” said Mamata, who has been saying Covid-19 reached the dreaded community transmission stage in India, which the Narendra Modi government at the Centre has been in denial of.

Also called Stage III, community transmission is a phase of person-to-person spread of the infection, where the source is difficult to trace.

“The pandemic is getting us to worry…. The spread has increased again, everywhere, right now,” said the chief minister.

Of the total 5,744 deaths reported, Calcutta alone accounted for 1,914, with 18 till 9am. North 24-Parganas reported a total of 1,295 deaths, 14 of them on Tuesday.

The state government reported 4,860 deaths (84.6 per cent) as those with comorbidity “present”.

Bengal’s overall mortality rate is 1.9, substantially behind the national rate of 1.52 per cent.

With 42,237 tests, the total tests went past 37.75 lakh, at 41,954 tests per million people.

The renewed surge in cases has caused the positive confirmation rate to rise again, over the past week or so, to 8 per cent now.

The state reported 37.43 per cent occupancy on 12,715 beds earmarked for Covid-19 at 92 dedicated hospitals, besides 3.27 lakh telemedicine consultations for the pandemic.