Bengal on Tuesday achieved a landmark in its spell of turnaround in the Covid-19 pandemic since Durga Puja with 50 consecutive days of drop in total of active cases which fell by nearly 17,000 during the period.

The state on Tuesday logged 2,965 recoveries, 2,289 infections and 45 deaths, bringing the total of active cases down to 20,663, back almost to where it was on August 1, 136 days ago.

“Our goal was to end the year with less than 23,000 active cases — mind you, we were at 37,190 on Vijaya Dashami (October 26) — but now less than 20,000 appears highly likely. Not even the most optimistic of estimates within the government was able to forecast this remarkable achievement,” said a minister.

The recovery rate, which has been in an unbroken spell of rise for 54 consecutive days, reached yet another new high of 94.33 per cent. The national rate now is 95.12 per cent.

In the past 50 days till Tuesday, the state recorded over 1.86 lakh recoveries, outweighing the 1.72 lakh cases detected for the same period.

“During this period, we managed an improvement of 44.44 per cent in our total of active cases,” said the minister.

Calcutta High Court had intervened to prevent worsening of the pandemic over Durga Puja, Kali Puja, Diwali and Chhath. The numbers of infections from the festivals in October and November showed that the court’s instructions were effective.

The state now has nearly 5.26 lakh Covid-19 cases, including 4.96 lakh recoveries and 9,145 deaths.

With examination of 41,569 swab samples recorded on Tuesday, the state’s total test count rose to 64.96 lakh. Tests per million people are 72,186.

The positive confirmation rate — the percentage of infections found in relation to the number of tests conducted — is 8.1 now, having improved fairly steadily from 8.27 on November 20.

Tuesday’s 45 deaths included 14 from the city.

Of the total deaths, 7,675 (83.9 per cent) were attributed to comorbidities by the state government.

The state’s mortality rate is now 1.73, compared to the 1.45 per cent nationally.

Bengal reported 20.16 per cent occupancy on 13,588 beds earmarked for Covid-19 at 102 dedicated hospitals. Over 5.31 lakh telemedicine consultations have been provided so far during the pandemic.