E-Paper
As Bengal gears up for phase 3 polls, Covid-19 cases shoot up
West Bengal’s active Covid-19 cases have more than doubled since March 27 when the first phase of elections was held.
The daily count of Covid-19 cases in West Bengal shot up nine times on April 4 since February 26 when the Election Commission of India announced the dates for the crucial state assembly polls, state health department data reveals.
“With elections going on, political parties are organising huge public rallies and roadshows every day where thousands of people are gathering. Precautions, such as social distancing and wearing masks, have taken a back seat. Under such circumstances, there has been a staggering rise in Covid-19 cases,” said Sukumar Mukherjee, member of the expert committee that was set up in 2020 to advise chief minister Mamata Banerjee on pandemic-related matters.
Bengal’s active Covid-19 cases have more than doubled since March 27 when the first phase of elections was held. With Covid-19 cases rising sharply, beds in private hospitals are also running out. Occupancy in government hospitals has also seen a sharp rise.
Data available with the state health department reveals that while only 216 new cases were reported from across the state on February 26, the count went up to 1,957 on April 4. While there were only 4,608 active cases on March 27, it went up to 10,153 on April 4.
While the first two phases of elections, in which 60 seats went to polls, have already been completed, six more phases remain. The third phase, in which 31 constituencies spreading over three districts would be going to polls, is scheduled for April 6.
Even though the cases have shot up alarmingly, the death rate hasn’t seen such a sharp rise. While on February 26, the state had reported three deaths, on April 4, the state reported 4 fatalities.
On February 26 only 198 beds out of 6,736 beds in government hospitals were filled up which was just around 3%. On April 3, however, the occupancy went up to nearly 12% with 665 beds out of the 5,604 beds booked in government hospitals.
The scenario was particularly worse in private hospitals. On February 26, only around 25% of the 1,007 hospital beds were filled. With Covid-19 cases rising, private hospitals have started increasing the number of beds. On April 3, out of 1,077 beds, 659 beds were booked which is around 61%. At least 11 hospitals in and around Kolkata have run out of beds.
The maximum number of cases were being reported from Kolkata and North 24 Parganas. Out of the 1,957 cases, around 56% were reported from these two districts. While the daily count in Kolkata on April 4 was 634, in North 24 Parganas it was 462.
The state government has ramped up the daily testing from around 20,000 in February-end to more than 26,000 now.
“While we need to increase our testing, we also need to go for contact tracing of the infected patients. Isolation of infected people and proper surveillance is very important. All these have taken a back seat along with maintaining safety protocols as a result of which cases are on the rise,” said Manas Gumta, general secretary of Association of Health Service Doctors in the state.
