Bengal on Monday reported 45 deaths from Covid-19 and the highest number of infections at 3,080, taking the toll to 2,473 and total cases close to 1.2 lakh, of which around 90,000 were recoveries.

Hours before the day’s figures related to the novel coronavirus were made public, chief minister Mamata Banerjee and chief secretary Rajiva Sinha spotted several green shoots in the state’s fight against the pandemic, such as the mortality rate of 2.06 per cent and 36.87 per cent bed occupancy.

“We have been trying everything, leaving no stone unturned to ensure people stay well, people stay healthy. Our mortality rate has improved to 2 per cent, only 2 now… it was 4.5 or so. We did a whole lot to lower this to 2… of which (around) 89 per cent are comorbid anyway,” Mamata told journalists at Nabanna on Monday.

The current national mortality rate is 1.92.

Bengal, in the initial months of the pandemic, had a much higher mortality rate. For instance, three months ago, the rate was 8.89, which improved drastically to 2.75 a month ago.

“Our worries are mainly about comorbidities…. Despite that, with early detection and timely intervention, much like in the case of cancer, lives can be saved,” said Mamata.

Calcutta alone accounted for 1,093 of the total 2,473 deaths recorded in the state. The city logged 23 fatalities for a 24-hour period till 9am on Monday. North 24-Parganas reported total 569 deaths, including four till 9am.

The state government attributed 2,189 of the deaths to comorbidities.

Of the new 3,080 cases, 548 were from the city, while 571 were from North 24-Parganas. However, they also reported recoveries at 618 and 490, respectively.

“(Of the 27,402 active Covid-19 patients), 5,137 are admitted to hospitals. Of them, 1,817 are serious, 997 are moderate, 2,363 are mild,” said chief secretary Sinha.

He reiterated that the state was on top of its Covid-19 management.

“We are prepared in every possible way to meet the Covid-19 challenge. I don’t know if some aspects of the information we share with you daily are getting noticed,” he said.

“For instance, our dedicated Covid-19 bed occupancy, when the pandemic began, was around 40 per cent. Today, that has reduced to 35 per cent (36.87 on Monday). Health infrastructure falling short of the pandemic needs is a huge problem across the country. But in Bengal, we have seen that our infrastructure is still adequate. Our 11,775 Covid beds… interestingly, to every bed, we are capable of providing oxygen, each and every bed,” he added.

“What the rest of India is only beginning to realise, the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) has begun talking about, that oxygen is most important, most crucial in treating patients.”

Sinha said the state had bought 300 high flow nasal cannula and ordered 300 more at Rs 2.5 lakh each. The chief minister urged donors to come forward with contributions in this regard.

“High flow nasal cannula, from two months ago, we started supplying. They are proving to be better than ventilators. We are strengthening this further,” said Sinha.

Mamata added: “These cannula, we experimented with…. This is turning out to be more effective than ventilators for Covid-19 patients.”

Sinha went on to flaunt Bengal’s position in testing. The highest 24-hour count was 34,214 on Saturday and 32,319 tests were reported on Monday. The total number of tests reached 13.47 lakh, at 14,968 tests per million people.

“Testing, we are at 34,000, daily, already. We are increasing further. Our daily testing per million — the WHO norm is 140 — is 377 now. We will maintain this momentum, we hope,” said Sinha.