Bengal reports 3 cases of UK's COVID-19 strain, one of Brazilian variant
Three persons in West Bengal were on Saturday detected with UK's new COVID-19 strain, and one with the Brazilian variant of the coronavirus, prompting the administration to take strict precautionary measures, a senior official of the health department said. Necessary measures are being taken to isolate these infected patients, he said.
"Our experienced doctors are monitoring them round the clock in accordance with the protocols set by the Union health ministry," he said.
The state recorded 259 fresh cases of infectious disease, pushing the tally to 5,76,435.
The toll mounted to 10,277 with two more fatalities -- one in North 24 Parganas and the other in Howrah -- according to a bulletin released by the health department.
Both of them died due to comorbidities, and COVID-19 was "incidental", the bulletin stated.
Kolkata reported 83 new cases, followed by neighbouring North 24 Parganas at 52.
Since Friday, 270 recoveries were reported from different districts of the state, taking the discharge rate to 97.66 per cent. Bengal currently has 3,213 active cases. As many as 19,665 samples were tested in the state over the past 24 hours, raising the total number of such clinical examinations to 86,78,594, the bulletin said.
On Saturday, at least 69,700 people took the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and another 14,820 were administered the second jab, the senior official said.
"A total of 84,500 people were vaccinated today. Of them 28,973 are aged 60 years and above, while 5,100 are in the age group 45-59 years and have comorbidities," he said, adding that there was no case of adverse event following immunization (AEFI) reported from anywhere in the state.
(With PTI inputs)
