West Bengal: 7 die, 92 new cases in last 24 hours

The government said till date Kolkata, Howrah and North 24 Parganas districts had reported the most infections. In Kolkata, 783 people tested positive, while in North 24 Parganas and Howrah 324 and 220 people contracted the virus

As per the health bulletin, the authorities tested 2,611 samples since Wednesday evening. In more than a month, 32,752 samples have been examined. At present, 4,757 people are still in institutional quarantine, while 9,618 people are isolated in their homes.

Meanwhile, the state health department started work to turn the Calcutta Medical College (CMC) into a tertiary-level hospital dedicated to patients suffering from the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), a day after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s announcement,

Authorities said all doctors and nurses now working in different departments in CMC would be deployed to treat COVID-19 patients. They will have to complete a short professional training module before that. The government is planning to make CMC a 1,000-bed facility, with a huge isolation ward and Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

On Wednesday, the Chief Minister had said: “Keeping in view the increasing need for ramping up specialised COVID-19 treatment in the state, we have decided to notify Medical College, Kolkata, as a full-fledged tertiary-level COVID Hospital, which will start functioning from May 7, 2020, onwards. The facility at Medical College, Kolkata will start with 500 beds [for both COVID and SARI] which would be scaled up as per need, in phases. This will be the 68th dedicated COVID hospital of West Bengal.”