Six more die of COVID-19 in Bengal; 136 fresh cases reported

Kolkata, May 19 () Six more people died of COVID-19 in West Bengal in the last 24 hours, raising the death toll in the state to 178, the state health department said.

The number of active cases rose to 1,637, with 136 fresh cases reported during the period, the department said in its bulletin on Tuesday.

Of the six, four are from the city and one each from South 24 Parganas and Hooghly district.

Earlier, the government had attributed the death of 72 coronavirus-afflicted patients to comorbidities, and said COVID-19 in those cases was "incidental".

At least 68 people were discharged from different hospitals in the state during the last 24 hours, the department stated, adding that 1,074 have recovered from the disease so far.

A total of 8,712 samples were examined for COVID-19 since Monday evening. The number of samples tested in the state so far climbed to 1,02,282.

West Bengal has so far reported at total of 2,961 COVID-19 cases. SCH RMS KJ KJ