Bengal is now having the lowest number of Covid cases since the middle of 2020 when the pandemic had started spreading in the state as it was doing across the world. Public health experts and doctors said this could be the end of the pandemic in Bengal as in other parts of the country but there was still a need to keep a close watch on Covid. The disease has till date killed 21,531 people in the state.

On Thursday, November 17, Bengal had only 14 new Covid cases with no deaths, according to the state health department. The number had gone down to single digit on November 15. On that day, the number of new Covid cases was nine, with no deaths. The number of new cases was more than 800, this day last year, the health department data revealed. Doctors said although it seemed Covid was on its way out, it was still not the time to completely drop guards.

“The numbers have gone down but in some other countries Covid cases are going up again. Also, the World Health Organisation is identifying new variants of concern. So, it is too early to think we are finally rid of Covid and we should not let our guards down,” said Chandramouli Bhattacharya, infectious diseases expert at Peerless Hospital.

“Stress should still be on vaccination and we should be weary of vaccine fatigue,” he said. Health department data stated that in Bengal, 73,07,855 have taken the first dose but only 15,324,424 have taken the third or precautionary dose. With Covid numbers going down, hospitals have also downsized their Covid wards. At RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences, there are 20 beds for Covid patients.

“But for nearly a month we did not have a single Covid patient and hence, we will be reducing the Covid beds to four from next week,” said R Venkatesh, COO, east and south of Narayana Health, which runs the RN Tagore hospital.