West Bengal on Tuesday recorded 2,752 new cases of COVID-19, taking the total number of cases to 80,984.
The State also recorded another high spike in the number of mortalities due to the viral infection, with 54 deaths in the past 24 hours. This brings the death toll to 1,785. The active cases in the State have climbed to 22,315 even as the recovery rate in the State remains at 70.24%.
Of the 54 deaths, 15 people died in Kolkata and 14 in North 24 Parganas. Six people each succumbed to the infection in Howrah and South 24 Parganas district. Kolkata recorded 719 new cases of the COVID-19 infection, while North 24 Parganas reported 596 new cases. A total of 22,321 samples were tested for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.
ICMR guidelines
Meanwhile, the West Bengal Health Department has written to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) requesting change of guidelines for immediate retest of a person testing negative in antigen test. The State government has suggested that the person should be sent for RT-PCR tests after three days but not immediately. The request comes after several patients who took the RT-PCR test at different fever clinics were found to be suffering from flu.
The officials of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation have stated that 70% of COVID-19 patients in the city are asymptomatic. Officials said that an antigen test of 100 people in Ward number 82 of the civic body revealed that 19 people are COVID-19 positive. “Sixteen of them were found to be asymptomatic,” an official said.
