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Daily count of Covid-19 cases drops below last year’s peak in West Bengal
West Bengal registered its highest number of fresh Covid-19 cases on May 14 this year, when the daily count shot up to 20,846
The daily count of Covid-19 cases in West Bengal, which had shot up to 20,000 in mid-May, has now dropped below last year’s peak of 4,157.
On Sunday, West Bengal reported 3,984 new cases. This is less than the highest number of cases reported on October 22, the peak of the pandemic in 2020.
West Bengal registered its highest number of fresh Covid-19 cases on May 14 this year, when the daily count shot up to 20,846.
“The number of cases has declined, and situation is now under control. We expect to touch the base level of 100 – 150 cases per days across the state by the end of June or early July. But we need to be on guard and follow all Covid protocols,” said a senior official of the state health department.
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The number of deaths reported every day has also declined to less than 100. On June 13, the state reported 84 deaths compared to 136 deaths on May 14, when the highest number of Covid-19 cases were reported.
Experts had said that the West Bengal assembly election was one of the main reasons of the sharp rise of Covid-19 cases in the state in April and May this year. While elections were declared in February-end, the eight phase polls took off on March 27 and continued for over a month. Results were declared on May 2.
“The number of active cases had shot up from 3,343 on February 26, when elections were announced, to118,495 on May 2, when the results were declared. The positivity rate had also shot up from 1% to 31% during the same period,” said the official.
After the new government came to power, the Mamata Banerjee administration imposed several restrictions from May 16 to check the spread of the virus and the state entered a near lockdown phase.
“Public transport was shut down, government and private offices were closed, timings of markets and shops were restricted and people’s movement at night was stopped. This helped and cases reduce,” said a senior official.
The state government has now relaxed some of the restrictions, allowing more shops to remain open longer. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has announced that eateries will reopen from June 16for some hours in the evening and shopping malls will also open with limited number of people.
