Twenty-three fresh Covid-19 cases have been reported in Bengal in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of active patients to 178. Two more persons have died during this period, raising the cumulative toll to 12.

The data were given out by chief secretary Rajiva Sinha on Saturday during the daily media briefing on the coronavirus outbreak. Over the past four days, 86 news cases of the novel coronavirus have been reported.

According to Sinha, 62 Covid-19 patients have been cured, including seven since Friday. “Two more deaths have been identified by the audit committee as deaths directly related to Covid-19; so the total number of deaths in Bengal stands at 12 today,” the chief secretary said.

“With the seven getting cured, the total number of active positive cases is 178, up from 162 on Friday,” he said, adding that 4,630 tests have been conducted in the state’s eight Centre-approved laboratories so far.

Sinha said 10 districts — Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, North and South Dinajpur, Malda, Bankura, East Burdwan, Birbhum, Purulia and Jhargram — have not reported any coronavirus case so far. Kalimpong has reported none since April 2 and Jalpaiguri since April 4.

Despite that, Bengal has seen a rise of 86 Covid-19 cases in the past four days — 17 on Wednesday, 24 on Thursday, 22 on Friday and 23 on Saturday, according to the state government’s data.

Sources in the government said it was this spike in the rate of rise, from single-digit increase earlier this month to 20-odd daily now, that got the top brass worried and prompted the decision to tighten the lockdown from Saturday.

“This change in the rate of rise is a crucial indicator in this pandemic and steps should have to be taken before this goes from local transmission (Stage II of the pandemic) to the dreaded community transmission (Stage III) phase,” a minister said. “…The lion’s share of cases reported over the past week have been from pockets of north and central Calcutta, some parts to the east of the city that lie in North 24-Parganas, besides Howrah,” he added.

Sinha said a total 3,858 people were quarantined in 582 state-run quarantine centres, while 35,209 others were in home quarantine. The state government, he said, has distributed to its hospitals a total of 3.75 lakh personal protective equipment kits, 2.35 lakh N95 masks, 16.4 lakh other masks, 79,000 litres of hand sanitiser and 7.4 lakh gloves.

Malda testing centre

A coronavirus testing facility will begin functioning at Malda Medical College and Hospital on Sunday, chief secretary Sinha announced on Friday. It will have the capability to conduct 60 tests a day.

This will be the second testing facility in north Bengal after North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in Siliguri.