Situation not alarming in Bengal: Home department
Meghdeep Bhattacharyya, Calcutta: Bengal reported that 718 people had been cured of Covid-19 during 24-hour period till 9am on Tuesday, setting a fresh record in the number of recoveries.
As the recoveries rose to 19,931 and the total Covid-19 cases stood at 32,838, the state home department issued a statement asserting that the situation was “not alarming” in Bengal.
With 24 deaths reported till 9am, the Covid-19 toll rose to 980. Of them, 796 — 81.2 per cent — were reported as deaths with “comorbidity” present.
In seven days, the state has had 176 deaths.
Calcutta alone accounted for 516, with seven till 9am. North 24-Parganas reported a total of 180 deaths, eight of them on Tuesday. Howrah reported 134 fatalities, two of them till 9am.
“Nearly 700 of the 1,000-odd deaths have been reported from Calcutta and North 24-Parganas alone, with the city reporting more than 500,” said a Bengal minister.
With 1,390 new cases, the state reported 9,001 cases in just a week.
Of the new cases, around 80 per cent were from Calcutta and surrounding districts known for high population density.
The city alone reported 524, while North 24-Parganas recorded 293, South 24-Parganas 143, Howrah 119 and Hooghly 31.
The home department put out a tweet that carried a table and a graph, suggesting that the situation in Bengal was not worse than the rest of India.
“Situation not alarming. See table and graph below,” tweeted the home department handled by chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
In the table, the percentage of Bengal’s cases in comparison to India’s cases was given over seven dates between April 15 and July 12. It ranged between 2.32 and 3.47. As of Tuesday, it is 3.51.
“Compare that to the other big states. Maharashtra is 28.7. Tamil Nadu is 15.8. Delhi is 12.4. Karnataka is 4.7, so is Gujarat. Uttar Pradesh is 4.3. Why this gyalo gyalo rawb (all-is-lost brouhaha) over Bengal?” asked the minister.
“As of Tuesday, 0.036 per cent of Bengal’s total population was affected. Of that, 0.022 per cent have already recovered. That leaves us with barely 0.013 per cent of the population as active positive cases,” he added.
In the graph shared in the tweet by the home department, through a linear comparison between the state’s numbers and those of the nation, there was the suggestion that Bengal was marginally better off in the April 15-July 12 period.
Bengal set the new 24-hour record for recoveries for three consecutive days, bettering Monday’s 632. There have been 4,141 recoveries in a week.
“But given the sharp rise in cases, the recovery rate has been falling. We were almost past 67. Even a week ago, it was 66.24. Now, it is 60.69 per cent. The national rate, which we were ahead of for so long, is now 63.22,” said the minister.
The state’s total test count is now 6,38,540, with 7,095 tests per million, but owing to the considerable rise in new cases, the positive confirmation rate deteriorated from 4.24 a week ago to 5.14 per cent.
Around 7.1 lakh people successfully completed quarantine, while 34,000-odd remain in quarantine.
