Bengal on Sunday reported the highest number of Covid-19 cases and intra-day tests at 371 and 9,354, respectively, while the count of cured persons went past the 2,000 mark with 187 discharges being reported in a 24-hour period.
The total number of active patients has surpassed the 3,000 mark and is 3,027 now. The total test count went past the 2 lakh mark and reached 2,03,751.
The recovery rate rose to 39.21 from 36.51 per cent in a week.
Prior to Sunday’s 371, the highest intra-day rise in the Covid-19 cases was 344 on Thursday.
The sudden surge in the number of patients has been attributed by the Mamata Banerjee government to high incidence of infection among returning migrant workers, which is believed to be the main cause of 1,834 cases found in just a week.
At least 344 — around 93 per cent — of the 371 new cases were reported from districts experiencing the influx of a large number of people who were stranded elsewhere in the country during the previous phases of the lockdown.
Of the 371 — in 24 hours, till 9am on Sunday — 72 were reported from Calcutta, 60 from North 24-Parganas, 47 from Howrah, 43 from Hooghly and 36 from Cooch Behar.
“Newer records of rise in cases will be set almost every day now, week after week,” said a Bengal minister.
The positive confirmation rate — the percentage of people found infected among those tested — deteriorated from 2.64 a week ago to 2.7 per cent with the huge arrivals. An increasing positive confirmation rate is indicative of higher levels of Covid-19 spread.
“As Didi (Mamata) has said, there is nothing we can do to stop this since the Union railways ministry did not cooperate,” said the minister. He said the state administration was doing everything humanly possible regarding the medical protocol and quarantine of the returnees, but it could have been handled much better if the load of the returns was spaced out.
As of Sunday, there were 16,818 people at quarantine centres and another 1,35,530 in home quarantine.
Since May 8, after which the mass return of migrant workers started rising, the institutional quarantine number increased by over three times and that of home quarantine increased by over 14 times.
The number of deaths directly from the pathogen touched 245 with eight people succumbing to the disease in the past 24 hours.
Till April 30, there were 72 Covid-19 patients who died from comorbidities.
Of the 317 total deaths, 209 were recorded in Calcutta.
The state government on Sunday also reported 2,264 tests per million people, which was 1,542 a week ago. Bengal had 64,927 tests conducted in a week, in 40 Centre-approved laboratories.
“It took us till May 19 to cross the 1 lakh tests mark. The next lakh happened over 12 days. The 3 lakh tests mark is achievable before June 10,” said the minister.