To augment testing, more than 30K antigen kits to be sent to districts

kolkata: Stressing upon Covid testing in the districts, the state Health department is set to send around 30,000 rapid antigen kits in various districts, where the infection rate is higher. This step has been taken as the Health officials are apprehending that the number of infections may go up post Durga Puja celebrations.

North 24-Parganas will get around 8,000 rapid antigen kits, South 24-Parganas around 7,000 and Hooghly 12,000. Around 3,000 kits will go to north Bengal.

Meanwhile, the state on Tuesday saw a further rise in singleday Covid cases as the figure jumped up to 726 from what remained at 690 on Monday. The number stood at 624 on Sunday whereas on Saturday the state registered low infections of around 443.

State registered around 7,428 active Covid cases on Tuesday. As many as 705 Covid recovered patients have been released from different hospitals. The Covid recovery rate was registered at 98.33 percent. Around 9 people died of Covid in the state on Tuesday. Around 14 people died of Covid on Sunday and 11 on Monday.

The total number of infected people has reached 15,81,946 so far. Out of this, around 15,55,520 people have so far recovered and released from the hospitals. Around 18,998 people have so far died of Covid in the state. The percentage of occupancy of Covid beds in the State dropped to 2.82 percent on Tuesday. The positivity rate remained at 2.19 percent on Tuesday while the fatality rate in Bengal registered at 1.20 percent.

Around 106 fresh Covid cases were detected in North 24-Parganas on Tuesday while in Kolkata the number was registered at 183. South 24-Parganas has seen 66 new cases, Hooghly 69 and Howrah 56, Darjeeling 30, Nadia 47, Jalpaiguri 15. Bengal has so far carried out 1,87,33,414 Covid sample tests out of which around 33,212 tests were done on Tuesday. Kolkata, Howrah, Nadia and North 24 parganas have registered 2 Covid deaths each. South 24 Parganas has seen 1 death.

Health department has so far addressed 22,57,654 general queries so far out of which 2,370 queries were addressed in the past 24 hours. State has so far given telemedicine consultations to 9,26,005 people so far out of which 1,217 were given consultation in the past 24 hours. Around 229 people have been given tele-psychological counselling in the past 24 hours taking the total number of counselling to 4,46,074 till Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Bengal has administered 6,35,846 doses on Tuesday taking the total doses administered so far in Bengal to 6,82,16,542. On Monday, over 10 lakh doses were administered across the state. State health department has already asked all the district health officials to speed up the vaccination drive in their respective areas. They have been asked to give priority in the rural areas where vaccinnation rate has been lower compared to urban areas. Incidentally, Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi during a virtual meeting with the district magistrates (DMs) on Tuesday asked them to strengthen the vaccination drive in the rural areas. The number of vaccinnation dropped during the Puja days.

State has so far administered over 1.85 crore second doses so far till Tuesday. Over 4.91 crore first doses have been administered in Bengal so far.