The number of Covid-19 patients doubled overall in north Bengal in 24 hours, with Darjeeling district recording almost a four-fold rise.

The number of new cases reported on Wednesday in north Bengal is 483. It was 237 on Tuesday. “The highest number comes from Darjeeling district, which logged 193 new cases on Wednesday. The number was 50 on Tuesday,” said a doctor in Siliguri.

With this, there are 1,106 active cases in north Bengal.

Frontline healthcare personnel are also getting infected. On Wednesday, 28 students, seven nurses and two health workers at NBMCH tested positive. A doctor and two nurses of the superspeciality hospital of Malbazar in Jalpaiguri district were infected as well.

“We are fortunate that doctors in NBMCH have not got infected so far. All of us are on alert and health services are normal here,” said a source in the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in Siliguri, the biggest state-run hospital of the region.

“Connectivity between Calcutta and Siliguri is on (and hence chances of infection are higher) and as cases of the omicron variant have been reported in Calcutta, we cannot rule out that the variant has reached Siliguri. Earlier, some samples were sent to Calcutta for genome sequencing (required to find out if a person is infected with the omicron variant) but none was found positive. Today (Wednesday), another 100 samples have been sent for tests,” said a faculty member of the NBMCH in Siliguri that also houses the Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory of the region.

Based on the concentration of Covid cases, several micro-containment zones have been declared.

Three micro-containment zones have been marked in Siliguri civic area. The district administration of Cooch Behar marked 12 such zones in Tufanganj and Cooch Behar civic areas and in Cooch Behar-II and Dinhata-II blocks. Also, four such zones have been marked in Raiganj town, North Dinajpur district.