About 59 new cases, no deaths reported in state in past 24 hrs
New Delhi: The number of single-day Covid cases was registered at 59 in Bengal on Thursday. The figure remained the same on Wednesday.
On Tuesday state saw 75 new cases. The number of total infected cases in the state has so far reached 20,17,035 out of which 19,95,057 have been recovered so far.
No Covid deaths have been reported in the state on Thursday. No Covid death was reported on Wednesday as well. Two deaths were reported on Tuesday while on Monday one death was reported.
The recovery rate in Bengal was registered at 98.91 percent on Thursday. The figure remained the same on Wednesday and Tuesday. The number stood at 98.90 on Sunday. The fatality rate stands at 1.05 percent on Thursday, unchanged from Wednesday's figure.
The number of daily sample tests was recorded at 16,429 on Thursday.
Around 21,197 Covid deaths have been reported in the state so far. Bengal has been witnessing a positivity rate below 1 percent for the 35 consecutive days since the outbreak of Covid in March 2020.
State on Thursday registered the positivity rate at 0.36 percent from what stood at 0.34 percent on Wednesday. The figure stood at 0.45 percent on Tuesday.
Around 710 patients are undergoing treatment at home isolation on Thursday while 71 patients are in hospitals. No patients are in Safe Homes.
Around 2,81,610 doses were administered in the past 24 hours.
First doses have been cumulatively administered on 7,02,91,167 while around 5,96,67,233 have received second doses so far. Bengal saw no Covid death for two consecutive days.
The state health department now focusses on non-Covid treatment.
It has already directed all the district magistrate, chief medical officer of health in the districts and also the superintendents of medical colleges to set up 23 district integrated public health labs and 22 critical care blocks (CCB) under the newly launched Su-swasthya Kendras scheme. Around 50-bedded CCBs will come up in 13 medical colleges and 100 bedded CCB will be set up in 6 district hospitals.
State government will spend over Rs 23 crore for constructing 50 bedded CCBs and Rs 44 crore for 100 bedded CCBs.
With BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron still playing havoc in various countries and the Centre issuing fresh directives to all the states to increase Covid tests, the health experts in the city pointed out that this sub-variant of Omicron had already caused damages in Bengal during the last surge of cases in January and therefore its most unlikely to again affect people unless there is a further mutation in the Coronavirus.
The doctors also urged the people not to create any panic even if there is a prediction about an impending fourth wave from certain quarters. Doctors' fraternity in the country is however divided over the opinion as to when and how the fourth wave may hit the country and how many mutations may occur across the globe.
"Climate change may have some impact on the characteristics of the virus and it is also crucial as to which vaccines are administered in those countries. New variants sometimes depend upon the effectiveness of the vaccine," said Dr Gopeswar Mukherjee, a senior pathologist in the city. "There is nothing to panic about. People must be alert instead. There is no point of being unnecessarily scared. People must lead a normal life and follow the basic protocol," Dr Mukherjee further added.
WHO has already warned that many false ideas are being floated as some are saying that Covid pandemic is about to end while some others are saying that the Omicron virus is getting weaker.
