'Conduct over 55K Covid tests daily', directs state as cases surge by over 1000% in a week

Kolkata: The number of daily Covid infected cases in Bengal stood at 6,078 on Monday. The figure slightly dropped from Sunday's 6,153. Covid positivity rate in Bengal has, however, gone up to 19.59 per cent on Monday from what stood at 15.93 per cent on Sunday. Bengal witnessed over a 1000 per cent surge in cases in the last one week. The state has also given directions to conduct over 55,000 Covid tests daily.

Meanwhile, at least six international travellers tested Covid positive on arrival at the Kolkata airport on Monday, with two of them coming from Sweden.

A one-and-half-year-old from China and a 38-year-old man from Dubai have also tested positive.

Bengal has carried out vaccinations on 1,02,837 youths in the age group of 15-18 on the first day of the vaccination drive while in case of the ongoing immunisation around 8,34,728 doses have been administered on Monday. Around 10,58,93,646 doses have so far been cumulatively administered in the state so far. As many as 4.10 crore people received both doses in the state so far whereas around 6.48 crore first doses have been applied.

A senior health official in the rank of additional director of health services has tested positive for Covid on Monday. Trinamool Congress spokesperson Kunal Ghosh is also infected with the virus. Both of them have been undergoing treatment in home isolation. Kolkata Municipal Corporation Commissioner Binod Kumar, along with his wife, tested Covid positive on Sunday. According to sources, Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim's OSD is also Covid positive. Over 200 doctors, including health staff, have also tested positive.

In another significant development, the state Health department issued new guidelines on Monday to all the laboratories saying that genome sequencing should only be performed on those who have returned from the foreign countries or on those who have come in contact with the foreign returnees.

Genome sequencing cannot be done on all Covid positive patients.

State Health department has directed all the Chief Medical Officers of Health in the districts and also civic bodies to increase daily Covid tests so that the cumulative figure of Bengal crosses 55,000 on a daily basis. The development comes on a day when the state registered 6,078 daily Covid infections. It currently conducts around 40,000 daily Covid tests across Bengal. The health officials are not satisfied with the number and therefore have asked all the districts to enhance testing.

Kolkata and North 24-Parganas have been asked to carry out over 4500 Covid tests per day. The districts like Hooghly, Howrah and South 24-Parganas where the infection rate is below the other two districts have also been directed to perform nearly 4,000 Covid tests per day. Incidentally, around 31,030 samples were tested in Bengal on Monday taking the total samples tested so far in the state to 2,14,99,077..