KOLKATA: At least eight people have died of COVID-19 in West Bengal in the last 24 hours, raising the death toll in the state to 126, Home Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay said on Tuesday.
Bandyopadhyay said 110 fresh cases of coronavirus infection have been recorded in the state, taking the total number of active cases to 1,364.
The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Bengal stands at 2,173.
Altogether 5,007 samples have been tested for the disease in the past 24 hours, the home secretary said.
With that, the number of samples tested in the state so far rose to 52,622.
The state had earlier reported 72 deaths due to co-morbidities, where COVID-19 was "incidental".
A total of 785 rooms in 11 star-rated hotels in and around Kolkata have been identified to accommodate people returning from abroad, who will stay there in isolation, a hoteliers' association said on Tuesday.
The state government has approached the Hotels and Restaurants Association of Eastern India for rooms where foreign returnees will be quarantined, HRAEI president Suresh Poddar said.
"The association has been able to identify 785 rooms in 11 hotels belonging to four and five-star categories for the purpose.
However, no bookings have been made as no repatriation flight has reached here," Poddar told PTI.
The hotels will charge between Rs 4,000 and Rs 6,000 per room per day including all meals and evening tea, Poddar said.
"The bills at the hotels will have to be cleared by the passengers. We have arranged for discounts up to 60 per cent", he said.
To help Indians stranded abroad during the COVID-19 pandemic, the central government has initiated repatriation flights as a part of 'Vande Bharat' mission to bring them back.
Such repatriation flights have already landed in Kochi, Chennai and Hyderabad.
"Those disembarking from such flights will be screened at the airport and then transferred to the isolation rooms in the hotels earmarked for quarantine purposes," he said.
If the state government requires more such rooms, that can be arranged, Poddar said.
Two special trains carrying 2,342 people arrive at Bengal
Two special trains carrying 2,342 people, many of whom were stranded due to the COVID-19-induced lockdown, arrived in West Bengal from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu on Tuesday, officials said.
In the morning, a special train from Bengaluru reached the Bankura station and at 5 pm, another train from Katpadi in Tamil Nadu reached the Howrah station, they said.
India has been under lockdown since March 25 to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The first and second phase of the lockdown was from March 25 to April 14 and April 15 to May 3, respectively.
The third phase began from May 4 and would end on May 17.
Passengers of the train from Katpadi in Vellore mainly comprised patients and their relatives.
They had gone there for treatment, and besides them, migrant labourers and students also arrived by the train.
The passengers hail from different districts of West Bengal, the officials said.
The 22-coach train to Bankura departed from Bengaluru on May 10 and reached its destination on Tuesday morning with 1,200 passengers, Bankura District Magistrate Arun Prasad said.
The special train from Katpadi to Howrah had 1,142 passengers in 24 coaches, a South Eastern Railway official said in Kolkata.
The passengers who alighted at the Howrah station were subjected to medical examination before being sent home in state government arranged buses and other vehicles, the officials said.
Those at the Bankura station underwent medical check-up and were given refreshments by the district administration, Prasad said.
He said at least 100 state-run buses were arranged to transport the returnees to their native places in Jhargram, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Hooghly, Birbhum, Malda and Murshidabad districts.
The officials said ambulances were arranged for those who had gone for medical treatment and were still recuperating.
Though tired after the long journey, the passengers were visibly happy to be able to return to their homes after being stuck in the Karnataka capital for a long time owing to the lockdown.
"With little money in hand and no means to get back home, it was a very welcome move by the state government and the Railway ministry to arrange for the train to bring us back home," said one of the returnees, who had gone to Bengaluru for medical treatment.