West Bengal on Tuesday registered a record 20,136 new COVID-19 infections in the past 24 hours and 132 deaths. This is the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic that the number of daily infections has crossed 20,000.
The State tested 68,142 samples in the past 24 hours and North 24 Parganas and Kolkata recorded maximum number of new cases.
North 24 Parganas registered 3,998 new cases and Kolkata 3,973 cases. In Kolkata, 37 deaths were reported in the past 24 hours while North 24 Parganas recorded 39 deaths.
The number of active cases in the State has risen to 1,27,673.
Difficult for students
Meanwhile, the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education has postponed the Class X Board examinations scheduled to begin on June 1. About 12 lakh students in the State were scheduled to sit for the exam. Board officials said restrictions on the movement of transport and local trains made it impossible to hold the exam from June 1.
A decision on whether it would be held or cancelled will be taken later by the State government.
The Class X exams by Central Board of Secondary Education and Council of Indian School Certificate Examination have already been deferred or cancelled.
Meanwhile, as the number of COVID cases rise, hospitals in the State are overwhelmed with patients. Family members of a few patients at the State-run Vidyasagar Hospital in southern parts of the city said that non-availability of oxygen was the main reason for the deaths.
A few private health facilities in the city had to rely on State-run institutions for oxygen support.
