KOLKATA: The number of single-day COVID-19 fatalities in West Bengal crossed 50-mark on Monday after 53 people succumbed to the disease, taking the death toll to 1,731, the health department said.
The states coronavirus caseload also mounted to 78,232 after the highest one-day spike of 2,716 fresh cases was reported from different districts.
Kolkata and North 24 Parganas district both accounted for 21 deaths, while three deaths each were reported from South 24 Parganas and Howrah and one each from Hooghly, Dakshin Dinajpur, Uttar Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar districts, the department said in a bulletin.
Of the 53 deaths, 50 were due to comorbidities where COVID-19 was incidental.
The metropolis also topped the list of fresh infections with 756 cases, followed by 510 in North 24 Parganas, 185 from Howrah, 151 from Darjeeling, 144 from South 24 Parganas, 91 from Hooghly, 90 from Malda, 82 from Purba Medinipur and 79 from Coochbehar districts.
The remaining 628 cases were reported from test 14 districts of West Bengal, the bulletin said.
Since Sunday, 2,088 patients have been released from hospitals, and the discharge rate is now 70.07 per cent, it said.
So far, 54,818 people in the state have recovered from the disease.
The number of active cases stood at 21,683.
In the last 24 hours, 22,122 samples have been tested in West Bengal.
Aiming to free up private hospital beds for COVID-19 patients requiring emergency treatment, the West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission in an advisory said that only the doctor will decide on admission or discharge.
The decision of the examining doctor taken without any extraneous consideration or recommendation will be deemed final, it said.
If the number of waiting patients is more than the number of vacant beds, the doctor on duty would examine each patient and allot beds to the most deserving ones ignoring any extraneous considerations or recommendations.
The decision of the doctor on duty will be final and binding upon all, said an advisory from the Commission.
The examining doctor will also take the final call on shifting a patient from the general bed to the ICU or ITU, the advisory stated.
We have noticed that patients refuse to go home without a confirmatory coronavirus negative report though the discharge guidelines state that clinically fit patient can now be sent home even without testing negative.
Following this we have decided on this new advisory so that patients who need to be hospitalised do not have to wait as they do get any vacancies, one member of the Commission said.
If the patient wants he/she can shift to a safe house after being discharged from the hospital but will not be allowed to occupy a bed pending a negative COVID-19 report, he said.
In West Bengal there are 55 private hospitals so far treating COVID-9 patients.
With 37.88 per cent occupancy there are at the moment 11,552 beds for patients of the pandemic in West Bengal.