West Bengal on Friday registered yet another highest single day spike of 1,894 COVID-19 cases as containment zones in the State increased to 702. The total number of cases rose to 38,011 with 14,709 active cases. Twenty-six people lost their lives in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of deceased to 1,049. Twelve persons died in Kolkata and seven in North 24 Parganas district, three in Howrah and one each in Purba Medinipur, Hooghly, Nadia and Dakshin Dinajpur.
Kolkata alone accounts for more than half of the deaths with 549 fatalities, followed by North 24 Parganas, where 200 persons have died. Howrah is the third most affected with 141 deaths. There has been a marginal increase in the number of samples tested by the State — over 13,200 samples. The discharge rate has dropped to 58.54 %.
The containment zones have increased to 702. The State government has started a broad-based containment zone approach to contain the spread of COVID-19 with 434 containment zones on July 9. North 24 Parganas has the highest number of containment zones at 113, followed by Howrah, which has 85 containment zones.
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Despite a high number of cases, the number of containment zones in Kolkata remained at 24. In south Bengal, Purba Bardhaman has 71 containment zones followed by Nadia with 61 and South 24 parganas with 55 zones. Among the districts of north Bengal, Uttar Dinajpur has the highest of 70 zones.