Highest fatality: 96 die in a day; 17,411 fresh Covid cases

KOLKATA: Bengal on Friday registered around 17,411 new Covid cases which is the highest so far. The total tally of infected people has gone up to 8,28,366. As many as 96 people died across the state in the past 24 hours. This is the highest ever fatality in a single day

so far. Around 11,344 people have died of Covid in Bengal so far.

Senior health department officials are concerned over the rate of infection mainly in two districts — Kolkata and North 24-Parganas. According to the health bulletin on Friday, these two districts account for 45 percent of the total daily infection in the state. Both the districts together contributed 50 percent of the total daily fatalities on Friday. North 24-Parganas has seen 3,932 fresh cases on Friday and Kolkata 3,924 new infected cases. As many as 28 people died in the city in the past 24 hours while North 24-Parganas registered 20 fatalities.

The state Health department on Friday carried out 1,563 sessions and around 1,70,425 people were vaccinated in Bengal. It has so far vaccinated a total 1,09,67,130 people including health workers. Out of this, around 1,48,587 received both doses. Around 49,296 people took the first dose and 1,16,000 took the second dose on Friday. On Thursday, around 1,36,995 people were vaccinated across the state. No AEFI cases were reported on Friday.

Health department prepared some videos for circulation among doctors, peripheral health workers including ASHA to encourage them who have tirelessly been working. A one minute short video was also shot for spreading awareness among common people. "Let people test at the earliest and take treatment following telemedicine or local doctor. Delay can aggravate the disease conditions which can cause death," said Dr Ajay Chakraborty, Director of Health Services.

As many as 13,932 patients recovered from the disease in the state in a span of 24 hours taking the total count of recoveries to 7,03,398. Covid recovery rate on Friday remained at 84.91 percent. The number of active Covid patients stood at 1,13,624 on Friday. The percentage of positive cases out of the sample tested stood at 7.94.

The state has so far carried out 1,04,32,553 Covid sample tests out of which 53,248 tests were performed in the past 24 hours. In the past 24 hours South 24-Parganas 7 deaths, Howrah 3, Hooghly 14, West Burdwan 2, Jhargram 1, Bankura 2, Birbhum 1, Purulia 1, Nadia 1, Malda 3, Murshidabad 4, North Dinajpur 1, Jalpaiguri 1, Darjeeling 7.

The total death toll in Kolkata has so far reached 3,436. North 24-Parganas has lost 2,763 people so far. The tally of infected patients in Kolkata has gone up to 1,91,457 while North 24-Parganas has so far seen a total 1,77,700. South 24-Parganas has registered 973 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours. The total number of Covid infected patients in South 24-Parganas has gone up 52,367. Howrah and Hooghly have so far registered 1,123 and 557 deaths respectively and total infected cases in these districts stood at 51,121 and 41,865 respectively.

Meanwhile, in another development state Health department on Friday decentralised the power among principals of medical colleges and district administrations so that various proposals

relating to civil, electrical and information technology having financial involvement up to Rs 25 lakh can be addressed in less time.