With 18,802 fresh cases of Covid-19 in West Bengal on Saturday, the state plunged into a coronavirus crisis, government officials said as the capital Kolkata saw a cumulative weekly positivity rate of over 55 per cent ending Friday. The total number has gone up to 17,30,759 since the outbreak of the pandemic.
The positivity rate of the state also increased to 29.60 per cent from Friday’s 26.34 per cent with the Gangasagar Mela, which further reflects a grim fight against the disease, with a massive gathering of common people and saints starting today. The Calcutta High Court had on Friday given the green signal for the fair, an annual event, once a life-long pilgrimage for many Hindus, but ordered strict guidelines to be enforced to contain the spread of the disease.
It ordered setting up of a committee which can recommend the state to ban entry to Sagar Island if health safety norms are violated. The court also directed the West Bengal government to take a decision to declare Sagar Island, where the annual fair is held, a notified area, a move that empowers the state to take additional measures to safeguard health, safety and welfare. Will give Pilgrims.
The fair will conclude on January 16. The city recorded 7,337 new cases of infection on Saturday, while 3,286 new cases were reported in neighboring North 24 Parganas. 1,483 new cases were reported in Howrah, while 1,006 cases were reported in Paschim Bardhaman.
There were 19 Covid-19 deaths in Bengal, including seven in Kolkata, officials said. Since Friday, 8,112 patients have recovered and gone home. So far 16,48,821 people have recovered from this disease in West Bengal. However, the number of active cases has increased by 10,671 to 62,055 since Friday. Meanwhile, a study conducted by the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics has found that 71.2 per cent of the people diagnosed with COVID-19 in West Bengal are infected with the Omicron variant.
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