Bengal on Friday reported 476 Covid-19 cases, which was the highest 24-hour rise, and number of total patients went past 10,000 to reach 10,244.
The total cases doubled from 5,000 in 13 days — which was worse than 14 days it had taken to increase two times from 2,500 and better than the 12-day period to double from 1,250 cases.
The 476 new cases till 9am on Friday broke the previous record of 449 reported on Sunday. Of the new cases, 471 — nearly 99 per cent — were from districts experiencing a high volume of returns of migrant workers and others stranded elsewhere in the country during the initial phases of the nation-wide lockdown. Calcutta recorded most new cases at 111.
“Even with the massive spike since the second half of May — as the returns picked up — the doubling rate has not deteriorated. Even at this phase of the pandemic, 13-14 days or so is a positive,” said a Bengal minister.
In another positive development, release of 218 Covid-19 patients following cure in the past 24 hours took the total number of recoveries past the 4,000 mark to 4,206. The recovery rate of 41.05 per cent is a vast improvement from 30.66 a month ago.
“Despite the massive surge in cases on account of the returns, the steadily rising recovery rate is very heartening. In a few more weeks, we will have more recovered cases than active cases (5,587 on Friday),” said the minister.
Bengal also reported nine more deaths from the pathogen on Friday, taking the toll to 451. Of them, 306 — 67.8 per cent — are reported as deaths with comorbidity “present”. Calcutta has reported the most deaths at 283.
With 8,758 Covid-19 tests in 24 hours, the total tests touched 3,15,699, or 3,508 tests per million. A month ago, the state was conducting around 5,000 tests daily, with a total of over 57,000, or 640 tests per million.
The positive confirmation rate — the percentage of people found infected among those tested — deteriorated from 2.9 a week ago to 3.24 per cent. But there has been substantial improvement since the 3.97 per cent a month ago. A decreasing positive confirmation rate is indicative of lower levels of Covid-19 spread.
Currently, there are over 1.05 lakh people in 10,946 quarantine centres earmarked for migrants who returned by Shramik Special trains. At 582 other state-run centres, 17,036 people are in quarantine.
Besides, 1.57 lakh people are in home quarantine, too.
“There are 2.8 lakh people currently in quarantine. Another 3.2 lakh people successfully completed quarantine, including over 1.27 lakh returnees,” said the minister.