North 24 Parganas, which has emerged as a COVID-19 hotspot in West Bengal, on Tuesday recorded more fatalities than Kolkata. The district recorded eight deaths while Kolkata recorded seven, as per the bulletin shared by the State’s Health Department.
This is the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic that a district has recorded more causalities than Kolkata. The State reported 24 deaths in 24 hours, taking its death toll to 980. A total of 1,390 new cases were also recorded, taking the total case tally to 32,838. The number of active cases has touched 11,927 and the recovery rate remains 60.69%.
In another development, State Home Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay said the current broad-based approach to containment zones in the State will remain in place till July 19.
The notification said, “rigours of containment zones be particularly enforced in and around the city of Kolkata, and inter-alia in towns of Jalpaiguri, Malda, Coochbehar, Raiganj and Siliguri where comprehensive lockdown will be affected from 15th July 2020”.
Meanwhile, the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday directed a post-mortem examination of the 18-year-old student who died of COVID-19 on July 9. His family members have alleged that he was denied treatment at a number of State-run hospitals.
Supporters of Students Federation of India (SFI) held protests outside the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate, alleging lack of proper medical infrastructure to tackle the pandemic in the State.
