Bengal on Sunday logged 1,432 Covid-19 recoveries, 896 infections and 26 deaths, aiding the drop in its total of active cases for the 69th consecutive day since Vijaya Dashami on October 26.

In these 69 days, the total of active cases has fallen from 37,190 to 10,446, an improvement of nearly 72 per cent.

The recovery rate has risen for 73 consecutive days, by nearly nine per cent, to 96.35. The national rate is now 96.16 per cent.

“We are likely to achieve less than 10,000 active cases within the next couple of days. This is a very good situation to be in, at this stage of the pandemic, with the vaccination processes about to take off,” said a minister.

Since the end of Durga Puja, the state has reported over 2.24 lakh recoveries, outweighing the 2.01 lakh new infections detected.

The state’s Covid-19 total of 5.54 lakh cases include over 5.34 lakh recoveries and 9,792 deaths.

The 26 deaths reported included eight from the city.

The state attributed 8,208 (83.8 per cent) of the total toll to comorbidities.

Bengal’s mortality rate is now 1.76, compared to 1.44 per cent nationally.

The state’s positive confirmation rate is 7.7 per cent now, having improved steadily from 8.27 per cent on November 20.

“Besides the falling total of active cases and allied parameters, the shrinking positive confirmation rate is also a key indicator. This definitely suggests a steady reduction in the spread of the outbreak in Bengal,” said the minister.

With 32,256 tests on Sunday, the state’s total test count went past 72.1 lakh, at 80,112 tests per million people.

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

Last week, a similar set of instructions came from the high court, to ensure the outbreak does not worsen over the New Year celebrations.