230 new Covid cases in West Bengal, positivity at 5-month high

KOLKATA: Fresh Covid cases in Bengal surged above 200 on Wednesday after three and a half months with 230 cases in 24 hours along with a death. The number has jumped almost six times higher in about a fortnight. The hospital occupancy, however, remains lower. The positivity rate also touched 2.89% on Wednesday - an all-time high after February 7. On Tuesday, it was 1.85%.
Sources at the health department said the transmission rate is likely to go up further and said it was time for all to mask up and take the vaccine. Health experts fear hospital requirement will also rise. In fact, on Wednesday, 30 patients were under hospital care, eight more than on Tuesday.
"There is an uptick in positive cases as well as positivity rate. The requirement for hospital care, however, remains low so far. All measures are being taken to keep the situation under control," said a health official.
The last time the state reported new cases above 200 was on February 27. It remained around 100 for the next few days before sliding down to double-digits. The number reached three digits again on June 10.

Doctors said they have started getting a few children testing positive along with adult family members.
"We have started getting sporadic positive cases among children in the OPD or clinic, mostly with symptoms like fever and mild cough which persist for four to five days. While hospitalisation and mortality rates remain low, we have to be vigilant as the transmission rate is going up. We need to put our guard up again," said paediatrics professor Mihir Sarkar of Medical College Hospital Kolkata.
The positivity rate had remained below 1% for about four months before June 6, when Bengal reported a positivity rate of 1.1%. Even till the beginning of June, it was as low as 0.49%. While there were only four deaths in April and three in May, there have been three deaths this month already.
"This should be part of waxing and waning, with small spikes now and then that we expect during a pandemic. We expect most of these cases to be mild. As long as hospital or oxygen requirements remain low, the number of serious patients are less and mortality is low, such spikes should not be a major concern," said pulmonologist Raja Dhar, director of the pulmonology department at CMRI.