Post-Puja Covid spike in West Bengal, Centre raises alarm

The Centre has raised red flag over rising cases in West Bengal, particularly in Kolkata, post Durga puja. It has shot off a letter to the State government to increase testing & vaccination rates.

The Centre expressed concern that the State has reported close to 21,000 new cases and 343 new deaths in the last 30 days, accounting for 3.4 per cent of the country’s new cases and 4.7 per cent of new deaths in the last 30 days.

“One of the primary districts of concern is Kolkata,” Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said in the letter to his counterpart Narayan Swaroop Nigam in West Bengal as he noted the district has reported high quantum of average daily new cases in the week ending October 21 along with more than 25 per cent increase over the past week.

Kolkata has also reported an almost 27 per cent increase in positivity rate in the past week. The weekly testing trends in this district are also showing a downward trend. This calls for more proactive action on the testing front.

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation had been on alert since October 18, cancelling all health department staff leave and stepping up Covid testing. It had earlier decided to reopen one quarantine centre and two safe houses but the chairperson of the corporation and Bengal minister Firhad Hakim on Monday lowered the alert level as Covid case numbers came down.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday had claimed that the new cases of Covid-19 infections in the state are mostly from among those who have been fully vaccinated but their immunity after being administered both doses is not exceeding six months. She had directed the state health secretary to take up the matter with the centre and sought to know the reasons behind it.