Bengal on Tuesday reported a drop in total active Covid-19 cases for the eighth consecutive day since the end of Durga Puja, prompting the Mamata Banerjee government to assert that this pattern since Durga Puja made it a little more confident.

On Tuesday, Bengal logged 3,981 new cases and 4,058 recoveries.

“Something that we find most notable…people went out during the Puja, the festival was celebrated. Despite that, in Bengal, the positive rate, weekly and overall average, as of today (Tuesday), has been on the decline. The weekly mortality rate...the rate of infection have been falling,” said chief secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay, adding that this pattern “has given us a little more confidence”.

Bengal’s total caseload went past 3.85 lakh, including over 3.42 lakh recoveries. In the eight days since the end of Puja, Bengal reported 32,047 recoveries, compared to 31,767 new cases. The total active cases dropped from 37,190 to 36,443. Bengal’s recovery rate on Tuesday rose to a new high of 88.73, nearing the national rate of 92.03 per cent.

However, Bengal on Tuesday reported 56 deaths — 12 from Calcutta and 14 from North 24-Parganas — taking the total Covid-19 toll past 7,000 to 7,013. The first Covid-19 death in Bengal was reported on March 23.

The state government attributed 5,893 deaths, or 84 per cent, to comorbidities. Bengal’s overall mortality rate is 1.81, but still lags behind the national rate of 1.48 per cent.

Bandyopadhyay added that the government’s efforts to augment health infrastructure had been steadily on the rise.

A minister said: “What is very important to note is the fact that these are figures of infections during Puja days. Tuesday is Day 10 for someone who got infected on Mahanavami.” It is between days six and 10 of the infection that most Covid-19 cases get detected. According to the minister, these numbers were beginning to show how effective Calcutta High Court’s intervention, to keep unbridled revelry from worsening the outbreak into a full-fledged public health emergency, was.

With 44,176 tests on Tuesday, Bengal achieved over 46.88 lakh tests, at 52,092 tests per million people. The positive confirmation rate is 8.22 per cent now.

The state reported 32.75 per cent occupancy in the 12,966 beds earmarked for Covid-19 in the 96 dedicated hospitals for the pandemic, besides nearly 4.07 lakh telemedicine consultations so far this pandemic.