Bengal on Thursday went past 5.5 lakh Covid-19 recoveries in all, with the day’s 517 recoveries.

The state also logged 416 new infections and nine deaths in the 24-hour window till 9am on Thursday.

The most recent 50,000 recoveries were logged in 35 days and the total of over 5.5 lakh came in 310 days from the first Covid-19 infection detected in Bengal on March 17, 2020.

“The first 50,000 of Bengal’s recoveries took 137 days (since March 17). We had been achieving recent 50,000 recoveries in 12 to 17 days. The latest one took longer because the number of infections being found daily has come down drastically, naturally bringing down the number of daily recoveries as well,” said a state minister.

“With us having reined the outbreak in considerably, these daily numbers will keep going down,” he added.

Bengal now has nearly 5.67 lakh Covid-19 cases, including 5.5 lakh recoveries and 10,089 deaths.

On Thursday, Bengal reported a drop in total active cases for the 87th consecutive day since Vijaya Dashami last year. The total active cases fell from the Dashami high of 37,190 to 6,565, an improvement of over 82 per cent.

With a rise over 90 consecutive days — from 87.44 on October 22 last year — the recovery rate touched 97.06 per cent, leading the national rate by 0.32 per cent. However, mortality rate is 1.77, worse than the national 1.44 per cent.

No jabs on Netaji day

The state government postponed the vaccination drive on January 23, birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, owing to the fact that most health workers would be busy with mega celebrations.