West Bengal on Wednesday recorded 1,089 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, marking a huge jump from the 382 cases on Tuesday. The tally over the past 24 hours is also the largest single-day increase in the number of cases over the past week.

With infections on the rise, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday hinted at the return of strict restrictions across the state.

The state also reported five new cases of Omicron on Wednesday, bringing the state’s overall tally of the new variant of Covid to 11.

Of the five people detected with the new variant of Covid-19 on Wednesday, one is a foreign returnee while the others have no history of travel abroad, said a senior health official, expressing concern. by the fact that the new strain was spreading rapidly among the population of the state.

“Yesterday (Tuesday) evening we received genome sequencing reports of 107 cases and five of them tested positive for Omicron. One of the five patients has a history of travel abroad, but the other four locals do not. The contact tracing cell is currently collecting information for the necessary containment measures, in accordance with the protocol, ”said the director of health services, Dr Ajoy Chakraborty.

Two of the four residents are from Kolkata while the other two are from Dumdum and Howrah, he added.

Kolkata led to the spike in new cases on Wednesday, accounting for 540 cases and followed by North 24 Parganas to 145. The new cases brought the state’s total number of infections to 1632,906.

As of Monday, the state had recorded 439 cases, including 204 in Calcutta. As of December 26, the state had recorded 544 cases, with Kolkata contributing 219 infections to the tally.

Twelve more Covid-related deaths on Wednesday brought the state’s overall death toll to 19,745. Kolkata and Howrah have dominated the toll in the past 24 hours with 3 deaths each. While the sharp increase in the number of cases pushed the state’s positivity rate to 2.84%, the discharge rate stood at 98.32%.

Among those who tested positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday were ruling Trinamool congressman Tapas Roy and Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) Ward 36 Trinamool councilor Sadhana Basu. Both attended Mayor Firhad Hakim’s swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Hakim urged those who returned from their trips to stay at home. “Get tested once, even if you’re not sick. We have to be careful. We must respect the directives issued by the Ministry of Health ”, declared the mayor.
Pradip Tandon, CEO of Belle Vue Clinic, said: “As of Friday, we had nine Covid patients. Now we have 37. That’s how the cases have increased.

In a significant development, the KMC, at a meeting on Wednesday, decided that the vaccines (Covaxin) will be administered to the 15-18 age group in 16 schools in 16 districts. The recall campaign for people over the age of 60 will start from January 10 and will include both Covishield and Covaxin vaccines.

Amid the increase in cases, Swastha Bhawan, the headquarters of the state health department, held a virtual meeting where it was decided that the MR Bangur public hospital would be designated as a hospital again. Covid-19.