West Bengal on Wednesday registered a record number of COVID-19 cases with the daily infections crossing 10,000 cases for the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic. The State recorded 10,784 cases of new infections in the past 24 hours and 58 deaths.
The highest number of deaths, 14, were recorded from North 24 Parganas. The district recorded 1,192 cases of infections. The surge in infections came a day before 16 Assembly seats of North 24 parganas will go to polls on Thursday. Kolkata recorded 1,493 infections and 13 deaths.
The situation in State-run and private hospitals remained critical as they were overflowing with patients. There were also large queues at hospitals as elderly patients waited to take the vaccine shots.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who had ruled out any lockdown, blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the second wave. Addressing a public meeting in north Bengal, she called the crisis “Modi made disaster”. The Chief Minister raised questions on the different pricing of vaccines and assured the people that she will provide vaccination to the population of the State after May 5.
