West Bengal reported 833 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, a spike for which officials blamed the unrestricted crowd on the roads during Durga Puja festivities. The spike in cases was anticipated as people went out for shopping and pandal hopping without even wearing masks, said Atin Ghosh, the Health in charge of Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
He also blamed overcrowding at certain places for the spike in cases in Kolkata, which is reporting the highest new cases over the past few days. “The figures are not that alarming, but COVID cases are rising steadily. We have to watch out till next week,” Ghosh said.
Kolkata reported 232 new cases on Thursday, followed by North 24 Parganas (143), as per an official bulletin. The unrestricted crowds in Kolkata during the festivities stoked fears among public health officials of an imminent third wave of the pandemic, forcing the police to make a Durga Puja pandal, modelled after Burj Khalifa, out of bounds for the people.
Fourteen people died in the state in the last 24 hours, while active cases rose to 753. Total 775 people recovered in the last 24 hours. The state’s daily positivity rate was 2.52 per cent as the new cases were detected after testing 33,018 samples.
West Bengal has so far reported 15.83 lakh COVID-19 cases and 19,021 fatalities. Total 15.57 lakh patients have recovered from the disease.
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