West Bengal on Wednesday recorded 1,628 COVID-19 cases and 34 deaths in the past 24 hours.
While the number of infections has dropped significantly in the past few days the State continues to record high number of deaths. On Tuesday West Bengal had recorded 1,653 cases and 38 deaths.
Till a few days ago, the State recording over 3500 daily infections and 45 deaths. While the number of infections has reduced to half, the number of deaths has not dropped proportionately. The total number of the infections in the State increased to 5,41,624 and the active cases have declined to 15,689.
Debashis Dhar, group vice-president, ILS Hospitals, a healthcare group that administers three hospitals in Kolkata and Howrah of which two have been involved in COVID-19 management, said the situation has improved.
“Our Howrah facility was taken over by the State government for Covid care, now 50% beds have been given to us for treatment of general patients,” Mr. Dhar said.
According to him one of the reasons for high mortality of COVID-19 patients is that most of the patients suffer from co-morbidities and were brought to hospitals and medical facilities late.
The number of samples tested in the State in the past 24 hours was 41,067 and the percentage of positive cases remains at 7.97%.
In another development, the State Health Department claimed it has been awarded for COVID-19 management. “The Health and Family Welfare Department of the Government of West Bengal has been bestowed with the prestigious GOLD category of SKOCH award for effective Covid management. The untiring 24×7 grievance redressal mechanism of this Department, headed by the Hon'ble Chief Minister, has earned this honour for the Department,” the department tweeted from its official handle.
