West Bengal's COVID-19 tally climbs to 1,25,922 with 3,169 fresh cases

Kolkata: West Bengal's COVID-19 tally rose to 1,25,922 on Wednesday following a single-day spike of 3,169 cases, while the death toll mounted to 2,581 with 53 more fatalities, the state health department said.

The discharge rate in the state improved to 75.97 per cent after 2,973 patients recovered from the disease since Tuesday, it said in a bulletin. The total number of recoveries stood at 95,663.

North 24 Parganas district accounted for 16 fatalities, followed by 11 in the metropolis.

The fresh infections include 666 cases from Kolkata, 657 were from North 24 Parganas, Dakshin Dinajpur (225) and South 24 Parganas (213), the bulletin said.

West Bengal now has 27,678 active cases.

Altogether 34,358 samples were tested since Tuesday, the department said.

During the day, state minister Swapan Debnath was discharged from hospital after he tested negative for coronavirus, health department officials said.

The 69-year-old MLA from Purbastali Dakshin (Bardhaman) was admitted to Beliaghata ID Hospital on August 11.

Meanwhile, the West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission on Wednesday directed authorities of Desun Hospital to deposit an amount of Rs 10 lakh in connection with the case of a 60-year-old COVID-19 patient from Tamluk, who had died inside an ambulance outside the hospital, where she was allegedly made to wait for an advance deposit of Rs 3 lakh.

"This is an interim measure, which the hospital should deposit with the Commission till the matter is resolved," a senior member of the panel said.

The private hospital has also been asked not to take any deposit from patients for admission.

The Commission also directed the licensee authority in the state to suspend the licence of another private hospital in the city, after it failed to pay a fine of Rs 2 lakh in an earlier case of alleged negligence in treatment, he said. PTI SCH RBT