Bengal today registered a spike in the Covid-19 cases with a highest number of 112 positive cases being detected in the last 24 hours taking the total number of cases to 1,456. State home secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay (photo) said the state government believes that more testing will help in getting the infection detected faster.

“Two months ago there was only one testing laboratory and today we have 15 labs. Permission for testing has been sought from ICMR by another 10 government medical colleges and two private institutes. Once we get this permission then we will have 27 labs,” said Bandopadhyay.

Stressing on the higher number of samples that are being tested, Bandopadhyay said 2,570 samples were tested today taking the total number of samples tested from 27,571 to 30,141. In order to upgrade treatment facility, state government has decided that Calcutta Medical College and Hospital will function as a Covid hospital with 500 beds from tomorrow onwards.

“Keeping in view the increasing need of ramping up specialised Covid treatment in the State, we have decided to notify Medical College, Kolkata as a full-fledged tertiary level Covid Hospital, which will start functioning from 7 May 2020 onwards. The facility at Medical College, Kolkata will start with 500 beds (for both Covid and SARI) which would be scaled up as per need, in phases. This will be the 68th dedicated Covid hospital of West Bengal.”

Bandopadhyay said that there are 8,036 beds in these hospitals and equipped with 271 ventilators, of which 30 were used. Four persons have died due to Corona and one patient discharged in the last 24 hours. The total Corona death toll currently stands at 72.

State government has come up with an “Entry App” on the lines of existing “Exit App” to enable people coming from outside Bengal to get entry passes by providing their particulars so as to facilitate them to enter the state without any hassles.

The Corona situation in the city remained grim with an additional 18 containment zones being added in Kolkata taking the total number of zones to 334. North 24 Parganas has 85 containment zones, South 24 Parganas has 22 zones and Malda three.