After a long gap of four months, since February, Bengal today recorded an alarming hike in the number of Covid-19 positive cases, bringing back the memories of a third wave with Omicron, a new variant of novel coronavirus, during the end of December in 2021.
A health bulletin released by the state health department today showed how COVID infection positivity rate has shot up to around 13 per cent, claiming two lives within a span of 24 hours.
According to the bulletin 1,424 out of 11,176 samples of suspects tested COVID positive in different laboratories across the state on Tuesday.
The positivity rate on Tuesday was 9.92 per cent affecting 954 people among 9,620 samples tested on Monday without any report of death.
Today’s surge in COVID-affected cases in the state is highest ever since February when there was a rapid decline in positive cases.
Experts associated with the state government’s different committees on COVID control and prevention initiatives urged the administration to strengthen the enforcement process of following guidelines to prevent the disease.
The government seems indifferent towards taking strong action against people who are not following COVID appropriate behavior like wearing masks, using hand sanitisers and marinating social distancing, a senior member of the advisory committee formed by the chief minister said requesting anonymity.
“The situation may go out of control affecting the economy again if the state government fails to take immediate action, forcing it to follow the guidelines prepared by the union health ministry,” he added.
Kolkata has become a city of grave concern with a sharp increase in the number of COVID cases every day.
Today, 589 positive cases have been reported in the city.