West Bengal logs 17 fresh Covid-19 infections, active cases 57
Times of India | 1 January 2024
KOLKATA: Bengal has logged 17 new cases of Covid-19 on Sunday - the highest single-day spike during this current uptick. With this, the number of active cases in the state has gone up to 57. Health experts apprehend further surge in the days ahead, especially when there are large festive gatherings that started a week ago but added that there was no reason to panic as the infection was causing mild illness.State health officials said the situation was not alarming.
The officials have also directed all hospitals to send positive samples of admitted patients for genomic sequencing. So far, no JN.1 variant that is driving the surge in other states has been found in Bengal. The new variant was not detected in any of the first lot of 30 samples sequenced at National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBGM) Kalyani recently.
"We are sending more samples, particularly pertaining to the admitted positive patients for genomic analysis. There is no reason to panic at the slight uptick as long as the infection remains mild," said a senior health official.
While stray cases were being reported throughout the year, the state started getting positive cases on a daily basis in the past one week. The daily cases touched the two-digit figure on last Thursday when 14 fresh cases were reported. The number shot up to 17 on Sunday on a day when the country also logged the highest single day cases with 841.
Infectious diseases specialist Yogiraj Ray said that Covid-19 is everywhere like any other influenza and there was no reason to press the panic button.
"Covid-19 has become just like any other endemic viral infection causing only mild symptoms," said microbiologist Bhaskar Narayan Chaudhuri of Peerless Hospital.
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