West Bengal: Daily Covid cases drop by 5,000 with fewer testings; positivity rate shoots up

The state had reported 24, 287 new infections on Sunday.

Total samples tested in the last 24 hours were down to 51, 675 — a drop of nearly 20,000 from Saturday’s daily testing numbers — in what officials said was due to closure of testing labs on Sunday.

The state reported 16 more deaths since Sunday, which took the toll to 19,917. The total number of cases in the state reached 17,74,332 on Monday, with the tally of active cases being 89,194. Of these, 85,843 Covid-19 patients are in home isolation, 3,150 in hospital and 201 in safe homes.

At 93.85 per cent, the discharge rate continued to decline on Monday. Around 5.6 per cent hospital beds are currently occupied in West Bengal.

As per the state Health Department bulletin, 8,187 Covid-19 patients were discharged in the state in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 16,65,221. At 5,556, Kolkata again clocked the highest number of fresh cases among all districts. The state capital also reported four deaths due to the disease.

Meanwhile, West Bengal started administering booster shots to elderly citizens and healthcare and frontline workers in the state, who had received the second dose of a Covid-19 vaccine at least nine months ago, on Monday. On the first day, 35,081 booster shots were administered in the state. The booster shots were administered at several government-run and private healthcare facilities across the state.

“I was vaccinated on April 14 and I was eligible for the booster dose , hence I took it,” said Arvind Chowdhury (64), who got the booster shot at Kolkata’s SSKM Hospital.

Till now, 11,06,46,785 vaccine doses have been administered in West Bengal and 9,64,179 in Kolkata. The state has also administered 2,49,498 doses in the 15-18 year age group.

The drive to administer booster shots comes in the wake of a large number of doctors, nurses and police personnel testing positive for Covid-19. On Monday, Canning Subdivision Hospital in 24 South Parganas district had shut down its operation theatre due to a staff shortage, after 13 doctors and nurses, four anesthetists and 41 healthcare workers were found infected with Covid-19.

“All our anesthetists are down with Covid-19. In fact, several staff members of the hospital have tested positive and are in isolation, so we are forced to shut our operation theatre,” said a senior official of the hospital.

Meanwhile, the state government also revised its discharge guidelines for patients in accordance with the policy issued by the Centre. As per the new policy, no testing would be required before discharging a Covid-19 patient . The revised discharge policy is aligned with the Covid-19 clinical management protocol. “The patient shall be discharged after at least seven days have passed after they test positive and with no fever for three successive days. There is no need for testing prior to discharge,” read the guidelines.

The guidelines also state that if a patient’s oxygen saturation level remains above 93 per cent for three successive days (without oxygen support), and has stable comorbidities, if any, they will be discharged as per the advice of the treating medical officer.

Patients whose signs and symptoms do not abate, and those who are in need of oxygen therapy, will be discharged as per the advice of the treating medical officer only after resolution of clinical symptoms, ability to maintain prescribed oxygen saturation for three successive days without oxygen support, and stable comorbidities, if any.

The discharge criteria for severe cases will be based on clinical recovery at the discretion of the treating medical officer.

“Post discharge, the patients are advised to self-monitor their health for further seven days and continue wearing masks. Post discharge, if the patient develops any symptoms of fever, cough or breathing difficulty or she/she continues to experience residual/sustained symptoms, he/she shall contact the treating doctor,” read the guidelines.