West Bengal: Record 3,000+ Covid cases reported in state

For a second day on Friday, the state tested more than 30,000 tests to 31,317, taking the cumulative count to 12,48,272. Positivity rate (percentage of positive cases among samples) stood 8.84 per cent – almost identical with the national average of 8.85 per cent.

A total of 81,189 patients, including 2,572 in the last 24 hours, have been discharged while the discharge rate stands at 73.57 per cent. This means that the state has 26,850 active cases.

Kolkata and adjoining four districts continued to lead Friday’s surge. Kolkata recorded 615 cases, followed by 606 in North 24 Parganas, 254 in South 24 Parganas, 218 in Howrah and 151 in Hooghly. Kolkata and North 24 Parganas also contributed to more 60 per cent of the fresh deaths with 21 and 16 respectively.

Other districts that saw more than 100 new cases were Purba Midnapore with 224, 108 in Purba Burdwan and 102 in Darjeeling.

According to the Health Department, 2,696 people are in government quarantine and 34,037 in home quarantine. The rest 1,865 people are in safe homes.

On the eve of the country’s 74th Independence Day, Banerjee said people should wear masks and maintain physical distance while hoisting the Tricolour.