Promises to keep
Promises matter in elections because voters lack rationality. As election history shows, freebies do get votes. Hitherto, it was a time tested method of electoral success for a desperate opposition.
West Bengal recorded 2,341 fresh Covid cases and 40 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the total case count to 58,718 and death toll to 1,372. Currently, there are 19,595 active cases in the state.
Kolkata recorded 648 fresh cases, followed by North 24-Parganas with 542 cases and Howrah with 291 cases. Of the 40 deaths, Kolkata registered 17 deaths, Howrah nine deaths, North 24-Parganas five, South 24-Parganas four while two deaths were recorded in Darjeeling and Hooghly and one person died in North Dinajpur.
The rate of recovery stood at 64.29 per cent with 2,097 patients being discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours. Till now, 37,751 people have been cured. According to an official, the recovery rate is very good in the state and most of the deaths are due to the fact that patients are brought to hospitals in critical stage.
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Had the patients been brought some time earlier then they could have been saved, he said. The occupancy rate in Covid beds is 42.32 per cent. Again, in some cases, mildly symptomatic patients are admitted in hospitals as a result of which moderate patients are finding it difficult to secure beds, he added.
The state government has thus started the process of shifting asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic patients from hospitals to safe homes.
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