Highest single-day spike for 3rd day in a row in Bengal with 449 cases, 13 die of infection

West Bengal witnessed the highest single-day surge in COVID-19 cases for the third consecutive day on Sunday, with 449 people testing positive for the infection in 24 hours, taking the tally in the state to 8,187, the health department said.

At least 13 people died of the disease during the period, raising the death toll to 324, it said.

Of the fresh deaths, seven were from the metropolis, three from neighbouring North 24 Parganas, two from Howrah and one from Darjeeling, the department said in its bulletin.

Earlier, 72 coronavirus-afflicted people had died in the state due to comorbidities and COVID-19 in those cases was 'incidental', the bulletin said.

Of the 449 new COVID-19 cases, the maximum 84 was reported from Paschim Medinipur district, 74 from Kolkata, 68 from North 24 Parganas, 37 each from Howrah and Hooghly and 31 from South 24 Parganas, it said.

The other districts which also reported coronavirus cases were Jalpaiguri, Malda, Cooch Behar, Bankura, Jhargram, Nadia, Kalimpong, Darjeeling, Alipurduar, Uttar Dinajpur and Dakshin Dinajpur, the bulletin said.

The number of active coronavirus cases in the state stood at 4,488.

Altogether 184 people were discharged from different hospitals in the state since Saturday evening, taking the number of recoveries to 3,303.

Of them was a 90-year-old woman, a resident of Howrah, who was discharged from a private hospital after she "completely recovered" from the disease, health department sources said.

"The woman was also suffering from hypothyroidism. She has recovered and is stable. We have discharged her today," a source said.

As many as 9,786 samples were tested for the disease in the last 24 hours. The total number of samples tested so far in the state were 2,71,074.