The West Bengal government on Thursday said that it had control over the Covid-19 situation in the state even as it saw yet another highest single-day spike in the number of fresh cases recorded.
In August, the state has seen record spikes in the number of cases and the number of deaths due to the coronavirus almost everyday.
On Thursday Bengal recorded 2,954, taking the total number of cases in the state to 86,754. The bulletin said that 56 people died of the disease in the state.
The total numebr of deaths in Bengal is at 1,902.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee sought to assure the people of Bengal by saying the cases were increasing because Bengal conducting a lot more tests.
The Telegraph quoted her as saying, “Because we are testing a lot more, of course, we have been getting more cases. But our decision is firm, we will keep ramping up testing, tracing and tracking… irrespective of what some other states might be doing. Because there is a lot more testing, there are more cases being found.”
The state has so far carried out 10,28,251 tests, of which 25,224 were carried out on August 6.
On a positive note, the discharge rate of Covid-19 patients has also consistently improved in Bengal. As of August 6, the discharge rate was 70.34%.
The Telegraph report quoted chief secrerary Rajiva Sinha as saying that there was no reason to worry as even when the total number of cases was increasing, there only 23,829 active cases in the state.
Saying the situation was under control, Sinha said the government on Thursday sanctioned 500 new posts of house staff in hospitals treating Covid cases.
The chief secretary said that over 500 beds have been added to the state-run and private COVID-19 hospitals since July 31 taking the total number of beds in hospitals for patients of the pandemic to 11560.
Sinha said there are over 10,000 beds at safe homes for COVID-19 patients, which is a unique initiative by the state for mild or asymptomatic patients.
He said the government has conducted about 25,000 tests in the city, 80 per cent of them RT-PCR and 20 per cent rapid antigen tests.
The fatality in COVID-19 cases is only 2.2 per cent, Sinha said.
(With PTI inputs)