Bengal on Wednesday reported 611 new Covid-19 cases, taking the total to 19,170, of which 13,398 were recorded in the past month.

In just six days since Friday, the state recorded 3,522 new cases. The total active cases stood at 5,959.

While there was a considerable rise in the number of new cases in June, there was also a major spike in recoveries with 10,222 cured cases. In 24 hours till 9am on Wednesday, there were 398 recoveries.

“On June 1, the recovery rate was 39.95. On July 1, it is 65.35. That says enough about the progress despite the rise in new cases over the past few days,” said a Bengal minister.

“The national rate right now is 59.4 per cent,” he added.

Of the 611 new cases, over 98 per cent were reported from districts that experienced a high volume of returns of migrant workers and others stranded elsewhere in the country during the initial stages of the lockdown. Calcutta alone reported 238.

Over 6.01 lakh people successfully completed quarantine, including nearly 2.49 lakh Shramik Special returnees. Barely 84,000 people remain in quarantine now.

The state reported 9,558 tests in 24 hours, taking the total test count to 4,97,596, with 5,529 tests per million.

“Tomorrow, we will be getting past the 5 lakh-test milestone. On May 19, we had crossed 1 lakh tests. That’s 4 lakh tests in 44 days,” said the minister. A month ago, Bengal had 2.13 lakh tests, at 2,369 tests per million.

Owing to the considerable rise in the new cases, the positive confirmation rate — the percentage of people found infected among those tested — deteriorated from 2.71 to 3.85 per cent in a month.

The state’s Covid-19 death toll rose by 15 to touch 683. Of them, Calcutta alone accounted for 386. The state reported 521, or 76.3 per cent, of the deaths as those with comorbidity “present”. In a month, the death toll has risen by 358.

“The mortality rate has improved from 5.63 to 3.56 in the state In a month. For Calcutta, it has improved from 9.82 to 6.2. Lowering the mortality rate further, getting to a place better than the national rate (2.95 per cent), is our foremost priority,” said the minister.

Bengal also reported occupancy of 23.11 per cent of 10,479 Covid-19 beds at 78 dedicated hospitals, besides 5.45 per cent occupancy of 6,908 beds at 106 safe homes.