Bengal on Friday logged 349 Covid-19 recoveries, 286 new infections and seven deaths, including four from Calcutta.

Bengal’s total active cases fell for 95 consecutive days — since Vijaya Dashami on October 26 — from 37,190 to 5,711.

“We are getting closer to our next target of less-than-5,000 total active cases,” said a minister. The state’s recovery rate is now 97.21 per cent.

“We are days away from our target of 98-plus in our recovery rate,” said the minister.

The state’s positive confirmation rate is 7.17 per cent now, having improved steadily from the 8.27, 70 days ago.

On Friday, the state reported 25,064 tests, taking the total past 79.44 lakh, at 88,274 tests per million people.

The state attributed 8,528 deaths — or 84 per cent — of the 10,155 deaths in all to comorbidities. Bengal’s mortality rate remained 1.78 per cent, while the national rate stayed unchanged at 1.43 per cent.

Calcutta High Court had intervened with instructions against crowding to prevent a worsening of the pandemic over Durga Puja, Kali Puja, Diwali and Chhath, as well as ahead of New Year celebrations. The slide in the number of infections from the festivals between October and January has shown that the court’s instructions were effective.