Active cases dip, government pins hope on HC order

New set of instructions issued to state govt to prevent crowding over New Year celebrations

The intervention came in the wake of some alarming scenes of Christmas revelry disregarding Covid-19 safety protocols. : Shutterstock

Meghdeep Bhattacharyya   |   TT   |   Calcutta   |    30.12.20  : Bengal on Tuesday logged 1,587 Covid-19 recoveries, 1,244 new cases and 30 deaths, including four from Calcutta, as the state recorded a drop in total active cases for the 64th successive day since Vijaya Dashami on October 26.

Active cases fell in these 64 days from 37,190 to 12,788, improving by nearly 66 per cent. In this period, Bengal recorded over 2.17 lakh recoveries and 1.95 lakh new cases.

On Tuesday, Calcutta High Court issued a set of instructions to the state government to prevent crowding and ensuring the outbreak does not worsen over New Year celebrations. The intervention came in the wake of some alarming scenes of Christmas revelry disregarding Covid-19 safety protocols.

The high court had intervened with similar instructions to prevent crowding over Durga Puja, Kali Puja, Diwali and Chhath. The numbers of infections from the festivals in October and November showed that the court’s instructions were effective.

“This is good news. We were hoping for such instructions from the court again. It would empower us to act in the name of the judiciary to make sure that the progress made since Durga Puja is not wasted over the New Year,” said a minister.

The state now has a total of over 5.49 lakh Covid-19 cases, including 5.27 lakh recoveries and 9,655 deaths. The recovery rate has risen for 68 consecutive days, from the 87.44 per cent of October 22, to 95.92, short of the national rate by just 0.01 per cent now.

“We will get past the national rate on Wednesday. By mid-January, we should be past 98,” said the minister.

Bengal’s positive confirmation rate is 7.82 per cent now, having improved fairly steadily from the 8.27 of November 20.

The state’s total test count, including Wednesday’s 37,235, is now 70.31 lakh, at 78,123 tests per million people.

The state’s mortality rate is now 1.75, compared to the 1.44 per cent nationally.

Of the total deaths, 8,090 or 83.8 per cent, have been attributed to comorbidities by the state government.