Bengal on Wednesday reported the longest spell of uninterrupted drop in its total active cases, the 16-day streak bettering the previous record of a similar 15-day phase that ended on September 7.

The state, with 4,431 recoveries in the day reset the record for daily recoveries for the 22nd time in 23 days, aiding the drop in total active cases from 37,190, 16 days ago, to 32,836 now. The total has now gone back to the level of October 16.

The number of new cases reported on Wednesday was 3,872, below 4,000 for the 16th successive day, since the end of Durga Puja. Bengal also reported 49 deaths, the day’s toll less than 50 for the first time in weeks. The state’s total toll stands at 7,452.

“A fall of around 5,000 (total active cases) in just about a fortnight that included infections during Durga Puja…is something to be proud of,” said a minister. He added that Bengal’s recovery rate was now at an all-time high of 90.34 per cent and had not dipped once since October 22.

“We are close to surpassing the national rate (92.8 per cent) soon. There have been a lot of positives in this post-Puja spell of drastic improvement in the Covid-19 situation, but the spike in recoveries is the most crucial,” said the minister.

The state reported 66,610 recoveries in these 16 days, outweighing the 63,162 new cases detected.

Bengal’s total novel coronavirus cases is nearly 4.17 lakh now, including over 3.76 lakh recoveries and 7,452 deaths.

“We have undone so much of the damage from that alarming spell of the outbreak that ended just before Durga Puja. Having successfully handled the major festival, we are a lot more confident about the weeks to come,” said the minister.

Calcutta High Court had intervened to prevent a worsening of the pandemic over Durga Puja. The numbers of infections from the Puja days, largely available by now, has shown that the intervention was effective. The high court has issued a similar set of instructions to keep the outbreak from worsening over Kali Puja and Diwali.

Bengal’s overall mortality rate improved to 1.78, but it is still behind the national rate of 1.47 per cent. Of the total death toll, 6,240 or 83.7 per cent were attributed to co-morbidities.

The state reported 33.61 per cent occupancy in the 13,508 beds earmarked for Covid-19 in the 101 dedicated hospitals for the pandemic, besides over 4.36 lakh telemedicine consultations so far this pandemic.