Bengal on Friday reported 3,157 new Covid-19 cases, 57 deaths and 3,016 recoveries.

The total number of patients in the state are now over 1.96 lakh, of whom 1.69 lakh have recovered and 3,828 died.

The recovery rate, which has been on a steady upward climb, is 86.1 now, far ahead of the national rate of 77.85. “We are third on the list of states with the highest recovery rate now, after Bihar (89.7) and Tamil Nadu (88.6),” said a Bengal minister.

After 15 days (from August 24 to September 7) of steady fall in the total number of active cases because of more recoveries than new infections, the state recorded spike in the number of patients for four consecutive days.

Bengal logged 45,326 tests on Friday, taking the total past 23.75 lakh. The state now has 26,396 tests per million people, which were 12,880 even a month ago.

Steady rise in testing, coupled with no discernible rise in cases being found, has improved the positive confirmation rate from a high of 8.9 to 8.26 per cent in about three weeks.

Deemed a key indicator in the Covid-19 pandemic, the positive confirmation rate is the percentage of positive cases out of samples tested. A decreasing positive confirmation rate is indicative of reducing levels of Covid-19 spread.

Of the 57 deaths reported in 24 hours, 16 were from Calcutta and eight from North 24-Parganas. The two districts have contributed over 60 per cent of all Covid-19 deaths since the first was recorded in Bengal on March 23.

Of the total deaths, 3,288 (85.9 per cent) were reported as comorbid by the state government. The overall mortality rate improved to 1.94, while the national rate is 1.66 per cent.

The state reported 32.48 per cent occupancy on 12,505 Covid-19 beds at 92 hospitals, besides 15.1 on 11,507 beds at 200 safe homes.

Telemedicine services have been provided to over 1.96 lakh people, 4,236 of whom availed themselves of the facility in the past 24 hours.