Kolkata, May 26 (PTI) The number of COVID-19 cases in Bengal crossed the 4,000-mark on Tuesday, with 193 more people testing positive for the disease, state Home Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay said.

At least five persons died due to the infection in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll in the state to 211, he said at the secretariat.

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The number of active patients in the state thus rose to 2,240, while the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases stands at 4,009, Bandyopadhyay said.

Altogether 72 COVID-19 patients were discharged from various hospitals in the state since Monday evening, raising the number of recoveries in West Bengal to 1,486, he added.

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As many as 9,228 samples were tested in the last 24 hours. The total number of samples examined in the state to this date has climbed to 1,57,277, Badyopadhyay said.

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

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)