Bengal on Sunday reported 1,740 Covid-19 recoveries, 1,435 new infections and 29 deaths, the lowest 24-hour toll in months, but 13 of those were reported from Calcutta.

The state also saw a drop in total active cases for the 62nd consecutive day since Vijaya Dashami on October 26. In these 62 days, total active cases fell from 37,190 to 13,774, improving by nearly 63 per cent.

Bengal has, in this spell of turnaround, reported nearly 2.14 lakh recoveries and 1.93 lakh new cases.

The state’s Covid-19 caseload is over 5.47 lakh but includes 5.24 lakh recoveries and 9,598 deaths.

Bengal’s recovery rate has risen for 66 consecutive days, from 87.44 per cent of October 22 to 95.73 now, behind the national rate by 0.08 per cent.

“We will get past the national rate on Monday and stretch the lead over the next few days of the year,” said a minister. “This 62-day spell has given us everything we could possibly have asked for in our fight against the pandemic, given the stage of the outbreak,” he added, calling the state’s Covid-19 management “exemplary”.

Bengal’s positive confirmation rate is 7.86 per cent now, having improved steadily from 8.27 of November 20. “A declining positive confirmation rate is another key indicator of reducing spread,” said the minister.

However, Bengal’s mortality rate is 1.75, compared to the 1.44 per cent nationally. Of the total deaths, 8,044 or 83.8 per cent were attributed to comorbidities by the state government.

With 38,118 tests on Sunday, the state’s total test count rose to 69.65 lakh, at 77,397 tests per million people. Bengal reported 13.05 per cent occupancy in the 13,588 beds earmarked for Covid in 102 dedicated hospitals.

Over 5.5 lakh telemedicine consultations have been done so far.