Bengal on Sunday logged 3,983 Covid-19 cases, which took the total number of patients past 3.21 lakh and dragged the recovery rate further down to 87.55 per cent.
The maximum number of patients for a 24-hour period was reset for the 15th time in October on Sunday, the day on which the cases crossed 3,900 for the first time.
The state also reported 64 deaths from the pathogen on Sunday, the third time to record the highest number of fatalities. The toll from the pandemic crossed 6,000 to touch 6,056.
Bengal minister of state for labour Nirmal Maji tested positive for Covid-19. Maji, 59, a physician, tested positive on Saturday evening, barely a month after an attack of cerebral haemorrhage.
Maji is the 10th minister to contract the novel coronavirus.
North Bengal development minister Rabindra Nath Ghosh, minister of state for parliamentary affairs Tapas Roy, minister of state for Sunderbans affairs Manturam Pakhira, transport and irrigation minister Suvendu Adhikari, backward classes welfare minister Binay Barman, food and supplies minister Jyotipriya Mullick, fire and emergency services minister Sujit Bose, minister of state for micro, small and medium enterprises Swapan Debnath and public health engineering minister Soumen Mahapatra had been detected with the pathogen earlier.
“Ten ministers make up 23 per cent of the cabinet whose total strength is 44,” said the senior minister.
Over 20 Trinamul Congress lawmakers, who include the 10 ministers, form over half of the 40-odd Bengal MLAs infected with the novel coronavirus.
Six MPs from the state have also contracted the disease. They are Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury (Malda South) of the Congress, Dilip Ghosh (Midnapore), Locket Chatterjee (Hooghly), Sukanta Majumdar (Balurghat), Jayanta Roy (Jalpaiguri) — all from the BJP — and Trinamul’s Rajya Sabha member Shanta Chhetri.
Covid-19 has also claimed the lives of CPM veteran Shyamal Chakraborty, besides Trinamul’s Egra MLA Samaresh Das, Falta MLA Tamonash Ghosh and Indas MLA Gurupada Mete.
With 43,520 tests logged on Sunday, the total number of swab samples recorded on Sunday went past 39.91 lakh and tests per million people are 44,347.
The renewed surge in the cases has caused the positive confirmation rate to rise again, over the past week or so, to 8.04 per cent now.
Of the total 6,056 deaths reported, Calcutta alone accounted for 1,984, with 13 till 9am. North 24-Parganas reported a total of 1,374 deaths, 17 of them on Sunday.
The state government reported 5,125 deaths (84.6 per cent) as those with comorbidity “present”. Bengal’s overall mortality rate is 1.88, substantially behind the national rate of 1.51 per cent.
The state reported 37.32 per cent occupancy on 12,751 beds earmarked for Covid-19 at 93 dedicated hospitals. Besides, there have been 3.47 lakh telemedicine consultations for the pandemic so far.
