Bengal on Friday reported 277 new Covid19 cases, 250 of which were recorded in districts which were receiving a large number of migrant workers.
Of the new cases — in 24 hours, till 9am on Friday — 71 were in Calcutta, 54 in North 24Parganas and 29 in Howrah. The total active cases rose to 2,736, which was 1,846 a week ago and 550 a month ago.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee said the daily rise had suddenly leapt from 2025 a day to hundreds and was 344 — the highest intraday increase so far — on Thursday.
“Fivesix lakh people have come. Several lakhs entered in buses and cars. Trains already brought back 75,000, so many more will enter. What can we do? They are our own, our brothers and sisters,” said Mamata.
Bengal on Friday reported 107 new cured cases — the total number of recovered novel coronavirus patients is 1,775 now — with the recovery rate at 36.87 per cent.
The number of deaths directly from the pathogen touched 230 with seven persons succumbing to the infection in the past 24 hours,
On Friday, there were 16,502 people at 582 staterun quarantine centres and another 1,15,578 in home quarantine. The numbers in home quarantine have increased by 1.06 lakh since May 8, after which the return of stranded people began in large numbers.
Bengal had sought to bring back returnees by 225 special trains, but in a staggered manner — with no more than 10 trains daily — till June 15.
Asked how many of the returning migrant workers, who were stranded elsewhere in India during the lockdown, had tested positive for Covid19, the chief minister said: “Oneyk achhey, oneyk achhey, oneyk achhey, oneyk achhey…. Oi jonyoi toh barchhey (There are many, there are many, there are many, there are many…. That is why it’s increasing.)”
“I mean they are getting infected. There is nothing to be done to prevent it. Where they have been coming from, they are hotspots. Somebody coming from Maharashtra, a hotspot, could well have Covid19. Delhi, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, all hotspots,” she added.
The Trinamul Congress chief, who had been critical of the Union railway ministry for its alleged unplanned and unilateral execution of the Shramik Special exercise for return of stranded migrant workers, said the disease was now spreading more because of those train journeys.
“Sleep with Covid19 as your bedfellow. Turn Covid19 into your pashbalish (bolster)… alright?” she said.
“Sorry, I seek forgiveness from the people. Bengal had tried a great deal and controlled the outbreak considerably, but not everything is in the hands of the state government. The sky, I cannot control. Similarly, the railway I do not control now,” she added, referring to her two stints as the Union railway minister.
There were, till April 30, 72 deaths of Covid19 positive persons, attributed to comorbidities by the state government. Of the death of 302 infected persons, 196 were from Calcutta.
The state government also reported on Friday 2,056 tests per million people, which was 1,340 a week ago. Over the past seven days, Bengal had conducted 64,452 tests. The number of tests conducted so far is 1,85,051. A month ago, the state had a total of 14,620 tests and 162 tests per million.
Since the surge in confirmed cases, the positive confirmation rate — the percentage of people found infected among those tested — deteriorated from 2.52 to 2.6 per cent in two days. An increasing positive confirmation rate is indicative of higher levels of Covid19 spread.
