With more than 73,000 new cases registered in the last seven days, speculations are rife that West Bengal, which has already announced formation of micro-containment zones, might impose a full lockdown to curb the unprecedented spike. On Friday, the state recorded 18,213 new cases, close to the highest single-day spike registered on May 14, 2021 (20,836). Experts are of the opinion that if the transmission chain is not broken immediately then the number of daily cases might break the record within a couple of days. What is more alarming for the state is the astronomical rise of cases in the last 10 days.

Meanwhile, the Covid-19 infection rate in Odisha is on an upward trend. The state has reported 3,679 fresh cases on Saturday while 2,703 cases were reported on the previous day. According to State Information and Public Relation department, the highest of 1,233 cases were reported from Khordha district, followed by Sundergarh (582), Sambalpur (372), Cuttack (310), Jharsuguda (134) and Puri (100). Meanwhile, State Election Commissioner (SEC) Aditya Prasad Padhi held a meeting with the State government officials to get inputs for a safe and smooth conduct of upcoming three-tier Panchayat elections in the state in view of the prevailing situation.