Covid positivity rate doubles in past 3 weeks

kolkata: Ahead of Durga Puja, a sudden rise in Covid cases across the state has become a concern for the health officials with the Covid positivity rate doubled in the past three weeks.

Senior health officials urge the people to wear masks while visiting puja pandals as the Covid curve seems to go up again. As the daily infection has gone down in the past few months, most of the people are not wearing masks. Officials are apprehending that if people do not follow Covid norms while visiting Puja pandals, infection may again go up further.

According to the health department data, the positivity rate in the state remained at 2.29 per cent on September 1, while it jumped to 2.61 per cent on September 7. The figure jumped to 3.41 per cent on September 14. The figure has now crossed over 4.60 per cent.

Daily Covid cases in Bengal were recorded at 337 on Thursday while on Wednesday the figure remained at 365. State saw 296 daily cases on Tuesday. State on Monday saw around 139 new cases. Health department had earlier directed the districts to complete booster doses keeping in mind that daily cases might go up during puja. On Sunday the daily figure stood at 267.

Bengal has so far seen 21,12,194 Covid cases out of which around 20,88,036 people have been recovered, as per the health bulletin. One Covid death was reported in the state on Thursday, unchanged from Wednesday, Tuesday and Monday's figure. The daily fatality stands at 1 for over a week now. One person died of Covid in the state on Thursday as well. Bengal has so far seen 21,492 Covid death tolls so far. Covid positivity rate slightly dropped on Thursday as the figure was reported at 4.46 per cent.