Kolkata Police Commissioner among 3,112 new Covid cases in West Bengal – Times Now

Kolkata: The COVID-19 death toll in West Bengal rose to 3,771 on Thursday after 41 more patients succumbed to the disease, a bulletin released by the state health department said.

The coronavirus tally also mounted to 1,93,175 after 3,112 people, including Kolkata Police Commissioner Anuj Sharma, tested positive for the contagion.

Since Wednesday, 3,035 patients recovered from the infection taking the discharge rate to 85.95 per cent.

The number of active cases stood at 23,377, the bulletin said.

During the last 24 hours, 44,347 samples were tested for COVID-19 in West Bengal, while 23,30,283 such tests were conducted in the state so far.

Of the fresh fatalities, 10 deaths each were reported from North 24 Parganas and Howrah districts while Kolkata accounted for five casualties, the bulletin said.

The remaining deaths were registered in several other districts.

The bulletin said that 31 of the 41 fatalities were due to comorbidities where COVID-19 was incidental.

The 3,112 new positive cases included 541 from North 24 Parganas, 481 from Kolkata and 214 from South 24 Parganas, it said.

Meanwhile, Kolkata Police Commissioner Anuj Sharma was infected with the virus and he went for home isolation.

Sharma himself confirmed the news when contacted by PTI.

The 52-year-old IPS officer has been feeling unwell for the past few days.

“He took the test yesterday and it confirmed the infection today. He is in home isolation at the moment,” a senior official of the city police force said.

Sharma had attended the “Police Day” programme held at the state secretariat on Tuesday, in which Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and other senior officials were present.

An assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of Kolkata Police, Goutam Mahato, succumbed to COVID-19 on Thursday, sources said.

Altogether 20 personnel of the city police force have lost their lives due to coronavirus infection till date.

In another development, the West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission in an interim order directed a private nursing home to deposit Rs 5 lakh with the panel till a case filed against it is disposed of.

A woman, whose 18-year-old son died of COVID-19 in July, had lodged a complaint with the commission against the nursing home accusing it of negligence.