West Bengal witnessed the biggest single-day spike of over 1,000 COVID-19 cases on Thursday.
According to the medical bulletin from the health department, as many as 1,088 cases were reported in the past 24 hours. There were also 27 deaths during the period.
Meanwhile, the state government reimposed lockdown in containment zones. The home department has ordered increased screening and implementation of lockdown as the state has been witnessing a huge surge in the number of COVID-19 cases. The total number of cases in West Bengal stands at 24,823.
A total of 854 people have died because of the disease in the state, with majority of deaths reported from Kolkata, North 24 Parganas and Howrah districts.
In north Bengal, two districts—Darjeeling and Malda— have been badly affected.
While there has been an improvement in the number of testing centres in Siliguri, in Malda, there is a limited number of centres even as the experts have been pointing out that there is a need to ramp up testing. Experts feel the testing have to be at the community level now rather than contract tracking.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, however, claimed that cases are increasing because of high testing rates even as the state has been testing only around 10,000 people on a day in the last fortnight.
Police asked many shop owners in Kolkata to down shutters in different locations in the city. There has been an increased police presence in containment zones across the state.
