Bengal on Wednesday reported 11,447 Covid-19 infections, including 2,154 from Calcutta.
In 24 hours till 9am on Wednesday, the state also logged 15,418 recoveries and 38 deaths, resulting in a drop in the total of active cases by 4,009 to 1,51,702. This was the third consecutive day of such a drop in the third wave. Before Monday, the last drop in the total of active cases was registered on December 27 last year.
Twelve of the state’s 23 districts reported zero deaths. Calcutta reported 14.
Even with 67,404 tests on Wednesday (over 14,000 more than Tuesday and over 32,000 more than Monday), the positive confirmation rate improved significantly to 16.98 per cent from 19.38 on Tuesday.
On January 10, it had reached an all-time high for the state at 37.32. In the nine days since, the rate improved by nearly 55 per cent.
Deemed a crucial indicator in the pandemic, the positive confirmation rate — the percentage of samples testing positive for the novel coronavirus — means one out of every six samples is testing positive currently. On January 10, it was two out of every five.
In a pandemic such as this, a positive confirmation rate up to 5 per cent is considered tolerable. At the peak of the devastating second wave last year, the rate had climbed to 33 per cent.
On December 28 — the last day of relatively normal numbers before the latest spell of surge in Bengal, the state-wide total of fresh cases was 752, which included 382 from Calcutta. The total active caseload was 7,457 then.
In the 22 days since, the state has logged around 2.97 lakh new infections, including over 1 lakh from Calcutta.
The recovery rate, for the third consecutive day, also improved to reach 91.09 per cent from 90.83 on Tuesday.
Prior to this, it had dropped by nearly eight percentage points after December 28. The national rate is 93.88 now.
The state’s mortality rate is 1.05 per cent now, with that of infected males at 1.23 and of infected females, 0.81.
Bengal has nearly 19.29 lakh cases now since the first was detected in the state in March 2020. The total includes over 17.57 lakh recoveries and 20,193 deaths.
