Bengal records highest one-day jump of 2,997 COVID cases, 56 fresh deaths

Kolkata, Aug 13 (PTI) The coronavirus caseload in West Bengal rose to 1,07,323 with the highest single-day spike of 2,997 infections on Thursday, the health department said.

The COVID-19 fatalities also mounted to 2,259 after the death of 56 people, the department said in a bulletin.

It said that 2,497 patients were discharged from hospitals after they recovered from COVID-19, taking the total number of cured people to 78,617. The states discharge rate is now 73,25 per cent.

The number of active patients rose to 26,447.

Of the fresh fatalities, 47 died due to comorbidities where COVID-19 was incidental, the bulletin stated.

Kolkata accounted for 16 deaths, while 12 fatalities each were reported from North 24 Parganas and Howrah, three each from Hooghly and Purba Medinipur, two each from Nadia and South 24 Parganas, and one each from Paschim Bardhaman, Malda, Uttar Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling and Alipurduar.

The metropolis also registered 666 new cases of infection, followed by 582 in North 24 Parganas, 229 in Howrah, 215 in South 24 Parganas, 208 in Malda, 166 in Murshidabad, 111 in Purba Medinipur, 105 in Darjeeling, and 99 in Nadia district, the bulletin said.

The remaining 496 cases were reported from 13 other districts of the state.

Since Wednesday, 30,032 samples were tested while 12,16,955 such tests were conducted in West Bengal so far. PTI SCH NN NN