The state of West Bengal saw a spike in COVID-19 cases reportedly crossing 800 daily cases on Wednesday, 20 October; and reporting 833 new cases on Thursday, taking the total number of cases to 15,83,646.
14 deaths were also reported on Thursday, taking the death toll in the state to 19,021.
Experts have blamed the Durga Puja celebrations for the current spike, saying that prevention rules were violated during the festival.
NDTV quoted Atin Ghosh, the health in-charge of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, as saying:
"All health department workers' leave was cancelled after we saw large numbers of people out on the streets to enjoy Durga Puja. Many of them did not wear masks. We are watching the situation as the incubation period of their infection is not over yet."
Meanwhile, the night curfew on traffic, which had been lifted for the Durga Puja period, has been reinstated from 11 pm to 5 am.
Dr Raja Dhar of CMRI hospital in Kolkata, has reportedly said: "If we find that over a period of time the number of cases is rising but the cases are mild, then we may have herd immunity. On the other hand, if hospital admissions and mortality rise, then we go back to the first and second phase, may be not as bad”.
Meanwhile, active cases in the state stood at 7,535 on Thursday, while the recovery rate stood at 98.32 percent with 775 more patients discharged over the last 24 hours.
(With inputs from NDTV.)
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