KOLKATA: After staying low for 18 days, Bengal’s positivity rate has again risen to 8%. It had slipped below the 8% mark on September 26 for the first time in eight weeks. Since August 1, there had been a persistent rise in the positivity rate that came close to 9% on September 21 before it started climbing down.
Experts believe the current spike in the positivity rate is linked to increased movement of people. “The number of positive cases is rising again as a lot of people have started going out for their Puja shopping and pre-Puja arrangements. This escalation in number of cases may continue till after Diwali,” said Bhaskar Narayan Chaudhury, microbiologist at Peerless Hospital.
“The pre-Puja shopping and political gatherings are to blame for this rising positivity graph. These are super-spreading events as far as the virus is concerned,” said Deb Kishore Gupta, infectious disease control specialist at CMRI.
On Tuesday, when the positivity rate hit the 8% mark once again, 42,237 people had been tested. On September 25, when the positivity rate was 8%, 43,815 people had been tested. But back then, the state’s Covid case load stood at 2.4 lakh. On Tuesday, it scaled the 3-lakh mark for the first time. Bengal has been reporting a daily spike in the number of cases in October. On Tuesday, it reported the single-day highest spike of 3,631 cases.
Experts feel this is worrying in the festival month. “In Bengal, people have become casual about the virus, thronging malls and market places in the run-up to the Puja. Citizens should also be responsible and take preventive steps. Otherwise the positivity rate is going to witness a continuous rise,” said Sumon Poddar, associate professor and the unit in-charge of the microbiology laboratory at Institute of Child Health.
With 37.7 lakh samples tested in Bengal till Tuesday, the state’s tests per million population is now at 41,954. Among them, 14.2 lakh tests were done using rapid antigen test (RAT) kits. NICED, Kolkata, however, threw up a positivity rate of around 22.6% on Tuesday, with 64 of the 283 samples testing positive. NICED has reported a higher overall positivity rate of 12.1% compared to the state’s cumulative positivity rate of around 7.9%. The national cumulative positivity rate is also 8%.
Experts believe the current spike in the positivity rate is linked to increased movement of people. “The number of positive cases is rising again as a lot of people have started going out for their Puja shopping and pre-Puja arrangements. This escalation in number of cases may continue till after Diwali,” said Bhaskar Narayan Chaudhury, microbiologist at Peerless Hospital.
“The pre-Puja shopping and political gatherings are to blame for this rising positivity graph. These are super-spreading events as far as the virus is concerned,” said Deb Kishore Gupta, infectious disease control specialist at CMRI.
On Tuesday, when the positivity rate hit the 8% mark once again, 42,237 people had been tested. On September 25, when the positivity rate was 8%, 43,815 people had been tested. But back then, the state’s Covid case load stood at 2.4 lakh. On Tuesday, it scaled the 3-lakh mark for the first time. Bengal has been reporting a daily spike in the number of cases in October. On Tuesday, it reported the single-day highest spike of 3,631 cases.
Experts feel this is worrying in the festival month. “In Bengal, people have become casual about the virus, thronging malls and market places in the run-up to the Puja. Citizens should also be responsible and take preventive steps. Otherwise the positivity rate is going to witness a continuous rise,” said Sumon Poddar, associate professor and the unit in-charge of the microbiology laboratory at Institute of Child Health.
With 37.7 lakh samples tested in Bengal till Tuesday, the state’s tests per million population is now at 41,954. Among them, 14.2 lakh tests were done using rapid antigen test (RAT) kits. NICED, Kolkata, however, threw up a positivity rate of around 22.6% on Tuesday, with 64 of the 283 samples testing positive. NICED has reported a higher overall positivity rate of 12.1% compared to the state’s cumulative positivity rate of around 7.9%. The national cumulative positivity rate is also 8%.
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