Covid cases nosedive in Kolkata and Bidhannagar – Times of India

Kolkata News

Kolkata: The number of daily Covid-positive cases has dropped to double digits over the past two weeks in Kolkata, and fatalities are down to a handful. On Tuesday, the city saw only 48 fresh infections and two deaths.
In fact, there have been just three Covid fatalities in the city in the past three days. In neighbouring Bidhannagar, daily infections are down to single digits and there ha-sn’t been any Covid death since February 4. Health experts see this as a ray of hope at the end of the pandemic tunnel.
Kolkata had recorded three-digit daily Covid figures for seven continuous months between early June and mid-January, with the highest coming on October 31, with 931 infections. The infection curve started dipping after mid-December and it was only on January 20 that the figure slipped back to double digits.
The number of tests, too, has declined. Currently the state is testing about 20,000 to 22,000 samples daily, but the positivity rate has come down sharply.
“There is a huge dip in positive samples. During the peak in October, about 40% of the samples tested in our lab would be positive. Currently, we are testing about 200 samples a day, out of which barely two-three are turning out to be positive. In fact, on Sunday, all samples tested in our facility were negative,” said Bhaskar Narayan Chaudhuri, a microbiologist at Peerless Hospital.
Bidhannagar, which has been reporting an average of five-six daily cases for a week, recorded only three new cases on Sunday and seven on Monday and 9 on Tuesday. There were only 98 active cases in the Salt Lake-Rajarjat area on Tuesday. For Kolkata, the number of active cases stood at 1,124 on Tuesday.
“There was a fear of cases surging once local trains, the Metro and other public transport services opened up. Now, almost everything is back to normal. Despite this, the number of cases is going down and that is definitely a good sign. There still are restrictions on some international flights and if mass vaccination starts soon, we should be in a position to prevent a second wave,” Chaudhuri said.
Even though there has been no seroprevalence survey, besides the one carried out by ICMR in June last year, when 14.4% of Kolkata’s population was found to have developed Covid-19 antibodies, experts feel a significant section of the population must have developed antibodies by now.
“It is most likely that we have either achieved herd immunity or are heading towards it. Going by the declining number of cases and the vaccination programme, we are definitely looking towards the end of the pandemic,” said microbiologist Pratip Kundu, a former director at School of Tropical Medicine, Kolkata.

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/covid-cases-nosedive-in-kolkata-and-bidhannagar/articleshow/80777334.cms