Seven more deaths and 85 cases of COVID-19 infection were reported in West Bengal in the past 24 hours taking the count to 1,344. While 980 are active cases, the number of deaths has increased to 140.

The State government maintains that “68 deaths are due to COVID-19 infection and 72 due to comorbidities where the infection was the incidental finding”. Though the “audit committee” set up by the State government is no longer looking into every death with the virus infection, it has not included 72 deaths in its official tally. In the past 24 hours, 2,455 samples were tested taking the number of samples tested to 27,571. So far, 264 persons have been discharged from health facilities.

Responding to questions on the high mortality rate, Home Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay said, “The more positive cases you test, the lesser will be the mortality rate.” He said that till a month ago the State had only one testing centre and it now has 15. He said in the first few days of the outbreak, the State was testing only “acute cases” so the mortality was high. On Monday, the Inter Ministerial Central Team ( IMCT) had highlighted that the mortality rate of West Bengal at 12.8 % was highest in the country.

Surveillance of SARS and ILI cases says Mamata

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took to social media saying a massive door-to-door surveillance has been going on for the past one month to identify the Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) & Influenza-like Illness (ILI) cases across West Bengal.

“This Herculean effort has been undertaken by 60,000 specially trained ASHA & health workers non-stop for the past four weeks. It gives us early warning signals and is an important proactive step in fighting COVID-19.” In the 5.57 crore household visits conducted from April to May 3, she said, “872 cases with SARI & 91,515 cases of ILI have been identified and given health advice”. She said 375 people have also been admitted to health facilities of whom 62 have tested positive for COVID-19.

The first train carrying over 1,000 persons reached the Dankuni railway station from Ajmer. After being screened, the passengers were given guidelines to isolate themselves. Another train from Kerala has also left for West Bengal.