Bengal on Tuesday witnessed significant positives in its fight against the coronavirus as a record 534 recoveries in 24 hours took the total number of cured cases not only past the 6,000 mark but also, in a first, past the total active Covid-19 patients.
The total active cases, at 5,386, dropped for the third consecutive day from Saturday’s 5,693. In the three days since Sunday, the state has seen 1,486 recoveries.
At the same time, Bengal reported 10 more Covid-19 deaths on Tuesday, which took the toll to 495. Of them, the state government reported 347 or 70.1 per cent as deaths with comorbidity “present”. Calcutta reported the most deaths, 301.
The state also reported 415 new Covid-19 cases in 24 hours till 9am on Tuesday. The total cases stood at 11,909.
With 6,028 recoveries in all, recovery rate for the first time went past the halfway mark to touch 50.61 per cent. A month ago, it was 35.82 per cent.
“This is a historic day, a momentous occasion in our effort against the pandemic. This will probably be remembered as the turning point, as the day the enemy started its retreat…. It is on the eve of exactly three months from the first Covid-19 positive case reported in Bengal on March 17,” said a minister.
The minister said over the three days, North 24-Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly, West Midnapore, Cooch Behar and Calcutta contributed in large numbers to the recoveries. “Between them, the six districts had 1,285 recoveries since Sunday,” added the minister. A month ago, Bengal had a total of 959 recovered cases.
Most of the new infections — over 97 per cent — were reported from districts with a high volume of returnee migrant workers and others. Calcutta alone reported 170.
As of Tuesday, 85,343 returnees are in 9,763 quarantine centres slotted for Shramik Special trains. Another 12,237 people are in other 582 state-run centres and another 1.52 lakh in home quarantine.
“Over 3.72 lakh people have already completed quarantine successfully. They include around 1.6 lakh Shramik Special returnees. There are 2.50 lakh still in quarantine, but that number will be halved next week,” said the minister.
With 8,512 Covid-19 tests in 24 hours, the total tests touched 3,51,754, or 3,908 tests per million. A month ago, the state had a total of around 86,000 tests, or 955 tests per million.
Owing to the rise in new cases along with testing, the positive confirmation rate or the percentage of people found infected among those tested deteriorated from 3.11 a month ago to 3.39 per cent.