Despite the mad rush for pandal hopping and huge mobilisation of crowd in and around the puja pandals, the number of cases in the state is showing a sign of decline.

The number of cases on Sunday was 760 slightly lower from 776 on Saturday and on Monday it was further down to 606.

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According to a bulletin released by the state health department on Tuesday, 607 people have been newly infected with corona in the last 24 hours. The most infected are in Kolkata at 145.

The number of victims on Sunday here was 16. After that North 24 Parganas where 127 people were infected in the last 24 hours. Howrah, Nadia and South 24 Parganas are in the third, fourth and fourth place respectively. In the last 24 hours, 47, 43 and 42 people have been infected with Covid-19 in those three districts.

Though the state health department might heave a sigh of relief, experts believe that this is just a temporary phase before the infection rate takes a sharp leap. “If you look into the details carefully you will understand the gravity of the situation.

On September 11 — just a month before the number of testing conducted in the state was 42,824 and the rate of positivity was 1.76 per cent. On October 1, the number of testing came down to 39,661 and the rate of positivity was 1.79 percent, but on Tuesday the number of testing was just 26,118 whereas the rate of positivity is 2.32 per cent.

This itself shows that the infection rate is showing an upward trend,” a senior expert and one of the members of the chief minister’s global committee for Covid-19 said on condition of anonymity.

He went on to say, “If the number of testing comes down the number of the infected will also come down, but that doesn’t show the real picture. The real picture is reflected in the rate of positivity among the total tested people and that shows an upward curve. The government will have to take immediate measures to control this upward trend”.

However, the death rate in the state due to corona is minimal. In the last 24 hours, 9 people have died in the state. The death toll in the previous 24 hours was 11. Three people have died in Nadia in the last 24 hours, two in North 24 Parganas and one person died in Kolkata. In Darjeeling, Hooghly and South 24 Parganas, one Covid patient died. Altogether 16,914 people have died in West Bengal so far.

In the last 24 hours, 2,52,265 people have been vaccinated in the state. With this, a total of 8,44,11, 444 people have been vaccinated.