The number of Covid-19 cases in north Bengal increased in the past 24 hours, but comparatively at a lower rate than the preceding few days.

On Saturday, the region logged 986 new cases, which are marginally higher than the 919 infections reported on Friday.

“On Thursday, 650 fresh cases had been recorded and 919 yesterday. The increase is comparatively marginal today. However, there is no scope for complacence and we have to be on alert,” said a senior doctor in Siliguri.

According to the state health department, the number of total active patients increased to 2,782 in the past 24 hours while there has been only one death.

The rise has made the administrations of different districts in north Bengal take various measures. The administrations are, however, yet to start conducting RT-PCR tests of all such people who are entering Bengal through the interstate borders.

In north Bengal, six of eight districts — barring Jalpaiguri and South Dinajpur — share the borders with Assam, Bihar, Sikkim and Jharkhand.

A couple of days back, chief minister Mamata Banerjee had announced that her government would make the test mandatory along all interstate borders.

“It is true that she had made the announcement but we are yet to receive official orders,” said an official of Alipurduar district administration.

In North Dinajpur that shares border with Bihar, police have raised checkpoints and are examining vaccine certificates of the entrants.

However, no such arrangement has been made so far along the interstate borders of other districts like Alipurduar, Kalimpong, Cooch Behar, Darjeeling and Malda till date.

Every day, thousands of people enter Bengal from these states via road and rail. A retired police officer said conducting such tests needed an extensive mechanism and manpower.

The Siliguri Municipal Corporation announced on Saturday that from now on, every market would remain closed for one day a week. A list of the markets with the weekly day of closure has also been mentioned in the order.

45 cases in Sikkim

In Sikkim, 45 new cases were recorded in the past 24 hours.

“It is a steep rise as on the last day of 2021, the state had recorded a solitary case of the virus. The 45 positive cases were found out of the 424 samples which were tested in past 24 hours, which meant the positivity rate is around 10.6 per cent,” said a health official.