Mamata Banerjee to skip COVID-19 review meet with Narendra Modi

Kolkata: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee will not attend the virtual meeting called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the COVID-19 situation with other chief ministers, sources in the state government said on Thursday. Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay will be present in the meeting, they said. Mamata will be busy campaigning for the ongoing Assembly elections in the state, the sources said. India registered a record single-day spike of 1,26,789 fresh COVID-19 infections, pushing the overall count to 1,29,28,574 on Thursday, according to the health ministry. The number of active cases also went upwards to breach the nine lakh-mark again, the ministry data showed.