Kolkata continues to be most affected, with new cases reaching 648 (Representation)
Kolkata:
Declaring that the West Bengal government “is moving at a faster rate than COVID”, Chief Secretary of State Rajiva Sinha said today: “In a state of 10 crore people, we have 660 who are seriously ill Now tell me, by any standard, is it a very large number? It is not a very serious problem. We are very, very capable of handling this. There is no way to not being able to handle this situation. “
His comments came just hours before the state released the daily bulletin that put the number of new cases at a record high of 2,198, pushing the number of active cases to 15,594 and the total number of cases to 40,209. In the past 24 hours, 27 people have died, bringing the total number of deaths to 1,076 in the state.
Kolkata continues to be the most affected, with the number of new cases reaching 648, 85 cases more than yesterday 563. The number of deaths in the city is also increasing.
A matter of concern, the discharge rate by immersion of 58.54 and a positivity rate which has reached 5.83 today.
“The more we test, the more cases there will be. It can cause panic. That’s why, look at the numbers a little more in detail,” Sinha said earlier, adding: “We have 14,709 active cases 72% of cases are asymptomatic, this represents more than 10,000 cases, those with mild symptoms represent 15%, or 2,200. Moderate, 8.5% or 1,250. Severe cases, 4.5% or 660 case. The government is in control and there is no need to panic. “
But the chief secretary’s comments also came a day after Delhi’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare wrote to Bengal’s secretary of health to express concern over the increasing number of cases. growing trend to positivity and the number of people dying every day in the state.
“West Bengal reports nearly 1600 cases per day and 93% of the total active cases have been reported in the past 4 days,” said Lav Agarwal, co-secretary MoHFW, in his letter to MNS Nigam, secretary. to the health of Bengal.
“Overall, the tests remain very low compared to the national average. An upward trend in the rate of positivity of cases in the past 3 weeks is also cause for concern,” he added. Some sentences were in bold.
He called for increased efforts to suppress transmission and keep the case fatality rate below 1%.
Among the suggested steps:
- trace at least 80% of close contacts of new cases and quarantine within 72 hours of confirmation of the case
- perform an analysis of hospital deaths and a videoconference on appropriate clinical management
- perform a quick hospital audit, create a grid and dashboards to monitor real-time status of bed usage
- Perform a minimum of 140 tests per million per day
- Test mild asymptomatic and symptomatic cases
The secretary-general said there was no shortage of beds in the state but that 15,000 more beds would be added to existing beds by August 31. The facilities there would be improved with dedicated oxygen cylinders, dedicated doctors, 24/7 ambulance service and links to a COVID hospital.
