The Covid-19 test positivity rate in nine out of 23 districts of West Bengal was more than 10% last week, a survey conducted by the state health department showed, PTI reported on Tuesday. The survey noted that the test positivity rate in some areas even crossed 20%.

In the previous round of survey carried out in mid-June, the test positivity rate in West Bengal was not more than 3% in any of the districts, The Times of India reported.

For the survey conducted last week, 400 samples were collected from every hospital across 23 districts of the state.

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“Murshidabad is the only district where the positivity rate is below 1%,” an official of the health department said.

Out of all the districts surveyed by the department, Nandigram had the highest test positivity rate of 24.6%. In North 24 Parganas the rate was 23.75%, followed by Darjeeling at 19.10%. Uttar Dinajpur ranked fourth with a test positivity rate of 16.25%.

Kolkata’s test positivity rate surged to 13.13% from last month’s 0.9%, reported The Times of India.

“The infection spread starts from the city and then goes to the districts,” a state health official told The Times of India. “Since eight districts are showing higher positivity rate than Kolkata, we should witness a decline soon.”

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Diptendra Sarkar, a member of the Covid-19 task force at the Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education And Research in Kolkata, said that the surge in cases had already hit a peak. The number is expected to plateau for about seven to 10 days after which there will be a steady decline, he added.

“We should not be worried about the asymptomatic or the mild cases,” he added. “Focus should be on the high-risk patients as we might see higher fatality a week after the peak.”

On Monday, West Bengal recorded 1,915 new Covid-19 cases with the daily positivity rate of 21.29%, an official bulletin said. Three new deaths were reported in the state and 967 patients had recovered in a day. The recovery rate of the state is currently at 97.79%.