West Bengal registered a steep decline in its covid-19 tally on Sunday for the second consecutive day as 14,938 more people tested positive in the state — down from Saturday’s 19,064. The virus also claimed 36 lives in Bengal, taking its toll to 20,088.
The state’s current caseload stands at 18,97,699, with 1,60,305 active cases. It’s positivity rate also decreased to 27.73 per cent. With 6.2 per cent hospital beds occupied, it recorded a discharged rate of 90. 49 per cent, while the number of testing samples also declined — 53,875 — in the past 24 hours.
Kolkata continued its downward spiral for the third straight day by recording 3,893 new infections and 12 fatalities over the past 24 hours. On Saturday, Kolkata had logged 4,831 cases. After Kolkata, North 24 Parganas saw the second highest number of Covid-19 cases (2,565) and deaths (five) in the state.
Despite the decline in case count, opposition leaders accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of “suppressing” figures of Covid-19 cases.
Quoting TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) state president Indranil Khan on Sunday called into question a 113 per cent positivity rate for all 42 Lok Sabha constituencies except Banerjee’s Diamond Harbor on January 12.
He said that day, Diamond Habour tested 53,203 samples and only 1,151 returned positive against the state total of 71,792 and 22,155.
CPI(M) senior leader Sujan Chakraborty also lashed out at the state government over “irregularities” in the health bulletin.
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