Bengal on Wednesday recorded a drop, by 8,598, in its total of active Covid-19 cases, aided by besides 17,386 recoveries, 8,923 new infections and 135 deaths.

The total of active cases, which was at an all-time high of 1,32,181 on May 21, is 70,015 now.

“We are looking at lowering the daily total of new infections detected to less than 5,000 in a week,” said a minister.

Bengal now has 4.07 per cent of the national total of active cases, and is seventh on the list of states with most such cases.The state now has a total of 13.94 lakh cases, which includes 13.08 lakh recoveries, besides 15,813 deaths.

Bengal’s recovery rate rose for the 32nd consecutive day, rising by nearly 9 percentage points to 93.85 per cent on Wednesday. The national rate now is 92.72.

“From the 33 per cent peak of the second wave, the daily positive confirmation rate has fallen to 11.87. We are close to getting it back to less than 10, which will be a huge morale boost,” said the minister. Positive confirmation rate is the percentage of positive cases out of samples tested.

Black fungus

For the first time in north Bengal, two persons with mucormycosis (black fungus) died on Tuesday night at the NBMCH in Siliguri. Both were middle-aged women with a number of ailments.