20 districts where every second person tested COVID-19 positive last week

Representative image. (Image: Reuters)

A week after the new government took charge in West Bengal, the adjoining districts of Kolkata and North 24 Parganas District continue to be among the worst epicentres of COVID-19. The Centre says nearly half the people who have tested there over the last one week have reported positive. They are among the 20 such districts in India reporting high positivity.

The weekly positivity rate from May 4 to 10 of Kolkata and North 24 Parganas districts was pegged at 44.4 percent and 46.7 percent respectively by the Centre. The daily bulletin from the West Bengal government reiterated the alarming situation as both districts together are reporting nearly 50,000 active cases which are 40 percent of all active cases in the state. As many as 8,000 fresh cases and 76 deaths were reported from these districts together on May 11.

There is no full lockdown in Kolkata or the North 24 Parganas District as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has ruled it out saying livelihoods are also important. She said only a “self-imposed lockdown-like situation” could save Bengal and people should remain indoors. However, the strategy does not seem to be helping so far as the number of fresh cases reported in Kolkata and North 24 Parganas has not gone down since May 2.

Fresh cases reported in West Bengal in fact crossed 20,000 for the first time on Tuesday and active cases are over 1.27 lakh, putting pressure on the healthcare system. The daily positivity rate in West Bengal stands at nearly 30 percent. The state government had ordered the shutting down of malls, cinemas, restaurants and bars, gyms and parlours since May 1. Market timings stand restricted and travel to the state requires an RT-PCR report.

20 districts with nearly 50 percent positivity rate

The Centre on Tuesday released a list of districts with high weekly test positivity rates between May 4 and 10, in which 20 districts have rates of above 45 percent. These included Bikaner and Rajsamand districts in Rajasthan with 64.7 percent and 53.8 percent test positivity rate respectively and North Goa and South Goa with 52.4 percent and 45.9 percent weekly test positivity rate respectively. The Nuh district in Haryana near Delhi was also identified with a high 55.8 percent weekly test positivity rate along with Sonipat (49.9 percent) and Panipat (47.7 percent) while Kalahandi and Sambalpur in Odisha were marked as districts with 46.7 percent and 46.6 percent weekly test positivity rate. In Madhya Pradesh, Shahdol and Vidisha districts were the worst-affected with 49.2 percent and 45.6 percent test positivity rate for May 4 to May 10 while Chhattisgarh’s Janjgir Champa was identified with a weekly positivity rate of almost 46 percent. Karnataka also has two worrisome districts in Uttara Kannada and Ballari at 45.7 percent and 44.3 percent.

What should be done?

A senior Central government official told News18 that in a situation of such high weekly test positivity rate, strong micro-containment measures need to be adopted by the district authorities, including night curfew, aggressive testing and contact tracing to bring down the positivity rate. “There is no other option but to put a night curfew and a strict lockdown for two weeks to break the chain of transmission,” the senior government official said.

The government in a press briefing on Tuesday cited the Pune model where the weekly test positivity rate was 69.7 percent in the first week of March and then night curfew was imposed there. After 15 days, even more stringent measures like lockdown were adopted in Pune which brought down the test positivity rate to 23.4 percent. Night curfew coupled with restrictions on mass gathering and non-essential activities for two weeks is essential to stop the spread of infection, the government said.