Kolkata, Oct 27 (PTI) COVID-19 cases in West Bengal continued to rise on Wednesday after 976 fresh cases were reported taking the tally to 15,89,042, a health department bulletin said. The number of fresh cases was up by 170 from Tuesday, and 171 from Monday. The eastern state had registered 989 new coronavirus cases on Sunday and 974 on Saturday. Durga Puja festivities came to an end in Bengal on October 15 with doctors raising concerns over scant regard paid to Covid-appropriate protocol. Kolkata accounted for the maximum number of new cases at 272 on Wednesday, as against 248, 229, 273, and 268 in the last four days. Neighbouring North 24 Parganas district reported 159 fresh cases during the day. In a letter to the West Bengal health secretary dated October 22, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan had expressed concerns over the new coronavirus cases and deaths registered in the state in the last 30 days. The COVID-19 death toll rose to 19,096 after 15 fatalities were registered n the state in the last 24 hours. Of the 15 fatalities, four each were reported from the city and Jalpaiguri district. North 24 Parganas accounted for three deaths while two fatalities each were from South 24 Parganas and Nadia districts, it said. West Bengal recorded 837 recoveries since Tuesday taking the discharge rate to 98.30 per cent. So far 15,61,973 people have recovered from the infection in the state. The number of active cases now is 7,973. In the last 24 hours, 43,222 samples were tested for COVID-19 pushing the total number of such clinical examinations to 1,90,39,301. PTI SCH MM MM