The Mamata Banerjee government said on Monday that the doubling rate of Covid-19 patients in Bengal had increased from four days in early April to nine days now with 504 active positive cases in the state at present.

After 47 people were detected with the disease and four recovered from the infection in the past 24 hours, the number of active Covid-19 patients went up to 504 from 461 on Sunday.

The death toll from the infection remained unchanged at 20. The state government asserted that Bengal’s fatality rate was better than the national average. The total number of cured Covid-19 patients in the state is 109 now.

“The case doubling rate in the first week of April was four days. In the middle of April, it was six days. Now, it is nine days. It is very, very close to the national average. It is a key indication of better case management and containment,” chief secretary Rajiva Sinha told a news conference at Nabanna on Monday.

“The fatality rate… 2.6 per cent in Bengal. The national average is 3.1 per cent,” he added.

Sinha said while there were nine active Covid-19 cases on March 25, the figure was 504 on Monday. Bengal’s positive confirmation rate, he said, was 5.4 per cent, almost on a par with the national rate of 5.25 per cent.

“The recovery rate, on the basis of patients discharged (from zero on March 25 to 109 now), is 18 per cent, which is the same as the national average…. Better than most other states,” he said.

While eight of the state’s 23 districts still remain free of the disease, Kalimpong and Jalpaiguri have not reported any new case in 20 days, said Sinha. Most of the cases found in recent weeks have been in Calcutta, Howrah and North 24-Parganas. Sinha said even in the high-prevalence zones, there were areas which reported no new cases for weeks.

“East Midnapore has eight containment zones. After April 9, no new cases from five of them. North 24-Parganas, 57 containment zones. From 13 of them, zero cases in two weeks. Howrah, 56 containment zones, 13 of them reported zero cases in two weeks. Calcutta, 227 containment zones. Eighteen of them reported no cases in two weeks,” said the chief secretary.

He said 5,447 people were still at state-run quarantine centres, while 18,629 others were in home quarantine.

Sinha said Bengal, with 1,150 more tests in 24 hours, had conducted 12,043 tests in total at 14 laboratories approved by the Centre. The 14th approved laboratory is at the Murshidabad Medical College and Hospital.

“We had one (Centre-approved) testing lab on March 25. Now, we have 14. Ten more have been applied for…. From 244 samples tested on March 25, we now have tested 12,043,” said the chief secretary.

The state government has reached 3.4 crore households through an app-based reporting structure put in place for tracing cases of influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infections (SARI).

“That’s almost 100 per cent of the households in the state, surveyed by our frontline healthcare workers. A total of 6,858 ILI cases were found, besides 507 SARI cases. As necessary, hospitalisation and testing were carried out,” said Sinha.

Sinha has said Bengal had 1,089 isolation beds on March 25 and the figure is 7,969 now.

“Bengal has 7.5 per cent of the nation’s Covid hospitals. But of the nation’s total active Covid-19 cases, Bengal has 2.3 per cent,” he added.

Industry nod

Bengal, said Sinha, has so far cleared 2,084 of 4,370 applications for reopening of industrial units.