Authorities have been concerned over the growing cases of COVID and have come together for a meeting to discuss the protocols needed to be followed suit for tackling the cases.
The graph showcasing COVID positivity rates in West Bengal has passed the mark of 2% on Monday after close surveillance for four months. 113 new cases and one Covid-related death have been recorded and a positive hike of 2.45% has been observed.
With the unexpected proliferation of the novel Coronavirus, the authorities at the health department have been quite in a tight spot and hence, the entire Covid expert committee held a meeting on Monday where they came to the conclusion that there is an urgent requirement to impose stricter safety rules to eradicate the situation. They have agreed on the measures which include compulsory masking in public and increasing the vaccination drive. The meeting also witnessed a discussion about the protocols for COVID detection and testing measures.
We talked about the need to test patients who come for ENT surgery and dental procedures, apart from those coming in with complaints of fever, respiratory distress and hypoxia below 94% oxygen saturation requiring hospital admission.
G K Dhali, Professor of Gastroenterology, IPGMER
In spite of the reemerging cases, the rates of hospital admissions have been low and the mortality rates have lowest. This observance prompted the committee to arrive at the fact that there were enough of beds at ID & Beliaghata General Hospital and MR Bangur Hospital for any possible covid-related admissions.
The authorities have pointed out that the number of testing of the samples in the past 24 hours have led to the surge in covid positivity rates.
There is no doubt about the rising Covid trend. But only about 4,600 samples were tested in the past 24 hours, resulting in the positivity rate going above 2%.
A health official at Swasthya Bhawan
West Bengal previously saw an aggressive covid rate beyond 2% on February 7, when it was recorded to be 2.59%. On the very same day, 29 deaths and 641 cases were recorded. It surged to 3 digits on June 10 remaining at the mark of 100 for the past four days.
