With 127 COVID-19 deaths, West Bengal registers highest single-day toll

KOLKATA: West Bengal on Saturday registered its highest single-day COVID-19 deaths with 127 new fatalities, pushing the death toll to 12,203, the health department said.

The coronavirus caseload increased to 9,73,718 after the state also recorded its highest one-day spike of 19,436 fresh cases, it said.

North 24 Parganas district accounted for the highest number of fatalities at 39 while the city registered 34 deaths, it said.

Neighbouring Hooghly district reported 9 COVID-19 deaths, South 24 Parganas (7), Howrah (6), and the rest of the fatalities were from the other districts.

Out of the 127 deaths, 50 were due to comorbidities where COVID-19 was incidental.

As many as 3,982 fresh infections were reported from North 24 Parganas while there were 3,961 new cases in the city.

In the last 24 hours, 18,243 patients have recuperated from the disease in West Bengal and the discharge rate has improved slightly to 85.89 per cent.

So far, 8,36,351 people have recovered from the infection. At present, there are 1,25,164 active COVID-19 cases in the state.

Since Friday, 63,377 samples have been tested for coronavirus in West Bengal, the bulletin said.

Altogether 1,09,05,646 samples have been tested for the infection in the state so far.

On Saturday, Dr Smarajit Jana, founder of Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Samiti, an NGO which works for the development and uplift of sex workers of the state, succumbed to COVID-19 at a private hospital.

Dr Jana (68), who breathed his last at around 11 AM on Saturday, played a pioneering role in combating the trafficking of women.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expressed grief over Dr Jana's death.

Meanwhile, around 1,00,641 people were vaccinated in West Bengal and no adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) were reported on Saturday.