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 today 2,291 fresh Covid cases and 39 deaths ~ the highest daily tally so far in both cases ~ in the last 24 hours. This came a day ahead of the state-wide lockdown that will be enforced from 6 a.m to 10 p.m tomorrow. All banks would remain closed during the lockdown on 23, 25 and 29 June.
Banks had operated during the earlier phases of lockdown. Petrol pumps would remain open to service the vehicles that are allowed to ply on that day, said an official. There are 18,450 active Covid cases, though till now 49,321 people have been detected positive in the state, while a total of 1,221 Covid patients have died.
A total of 29,650 patients have recovered till now with 1,615 people were discharged from hospitals today. The discharge rate was slightly higher at 60.11 per cent today. Kolkata again recorded the highest single-day tally with 692 cases but the situation in North 24-Parganas is also critical with 624 people being detected positive today.
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Howrah recorded 225 cases, South 24-Parganas 191 cases and Hooghly 139 cases. Of 39 Covid deaths that were recorded, 15 deaths were registered in Kolkata followed by North 24-Parganas with 11 deaths. Three persons died in South 24-Parganas and Hooghly, two in Howrah and one each in West Burdwan, East Midnapore, North and South Dinajpur and Darjeeling.
The occupancy rate in hospitals is 39.55 per cent; 6794 out of 11,239 beds in Coviddesignated government hospitals and 450 out of 2262 Covid beds in private hospitals are unoccupied.
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