Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday warned against carelessness this Durga Puja amid the pandemic, urging revellers not to disregard the safety protocols at a time the outbreak appears to have reached the community transmission stage.

Mamata’s warning came hours before Bengal reported 3,583 new cases and 60 deaths, besides 3,155 recoveries in the past 24 hours. The total Covid cases rose to 2.98 lakh, including 2.62 lakh recoveries and 5,682 deaths.

“Puja is almost here now, practically begins from Monday…. I want everybody to have a good time this Puja. But I will, once again, humbly request each and everyone to wear a mask. Now the spread of the pathogen is increasing,” she told a news conference after a state cabinet meeting.

“Community spread (transmission) is certainly happening… whether one admits it or not. Covid-19 is getting airborne too,” she added.

The recovery rate, which started falling after months last week, fell from 87.98 on October 6 to 87.84 per cent on Sunday. It remained unchanged on Monday. The national rate is 86.39 per cent.

Bengal’s overall mortality rate remained 1.9, behind the national rate of 1.53 per cent.