West Bengal today recorded 24,287 new coronavirus cases, its highest ever, data shared from the state government showed. Kolkata, its capital city, alone recorded 8,712 cases. The state's positivity rate stands at 33.89 per cent, while Kolkata's positivity rate stands at 41.93 per cent.
The infections detected in the last 24 hours, were 5,485 more than yesterday's, taking the tally to 17,55,046, the health department said.
The North 24 Parganas with several of Kolkata's sattelite towns including Salt Lake and its infotech and commercial hub accounting for 5,053 cases against the previous day's 3,286 cases. Other districts reporting large number of infections during the day included the industrial districts of Howrah (1,742) and Hooghly (1,276), near Kolkata.
There were 18 Covid-19 related deaths registered here which pushed the toll to 19,901, it added. Since Saturday, 8,213 recoveries were reported in Bengal, though the discharge rate further slipped to 94.42 per cent. The number of active cases, however, increased by another 16,056 to 78,111. In the last 24 hours, 71,664 samples have been tested in Bengal taking the total number of such clinical examinations to 2,18,74,205, the bulletin stated.
