Covid-19 cases cross 4,000 in Bengal.. The total number of active patients is 2,240, 852 of whom are from Calcutta

Meghdeep Bhattacharyya, TT, 27.05.20, Calcutta: Bengal on Tuesday reported 193 new cases of Covid-19, taking the total number of patients past the 4,000-mark to 4,009.

But 72 patients were reported cured on the same day, which put the total recoveries at 1,486. The recovery rate maintained its upward climb at 37.06 per cent, an improvement of over 20 per cent in a month.

The 193 new confirmed cases took the total number of active patients to 2,240, 852 of whom are from Calcutta. A week ago, the total active cases stood at 1,637. A month ago, it was 461.

The state on Tuesday reported five more deaths directly from the pathogen, taking the toll to 211, up from 178 a week ago and 20 a month ago. There were, till April 30, the death of 72 Covid-19 patients attributed to comorbidities.

Of the 283 deceased Covid-19 patients, 186 were from Calcutta.

The government on Tuesday reported 1,748 tests per million people, which was 1,136 a week ago and 121 a month ago. Over the past seven days, Bengal had 54,995 tests to rise to 1,57,277 tests in total.

A month ago, the state had a total of 10,893 tests.

The 9,828 tests conducted in the past 24 hours was the highest intra-day test count.

“In sample testing, we crossed the 1.5 lakh line, which is a big achievement, according to us,” said home secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay.

The state now has 34 Centre-approved laboratories. Approvals for 12 labs arrived after May 17 with Serampore District Hospital being the latest addition on Monday.

The North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in Siliguri continues to lead with 22,791 tests, followed by SSKM in Calcutta with 19,028 tests.

“We are now firmly placed to conduct 10,000 tests a week. We should be able to get past the 2 lakh tests mark before this weekend and the 3 lakh mark in a couple of weeks,” said a minister.

The positive confirmation rate — the percentage of people found infected among those tested — fell from 2.89 per cent to 2.55 in a week. A decreasing positive confirmation rate is indicative of lower levels of Covid-19 spread.

There are 18,146 people at 582 state-run quarantine centres and another 1,03,564 in home quarantine.

The state has distributed to its hospitals 10.07 lakh personal protective equipment sets, 4.22 lakh N95 or FFP2 masks, 28.73 lakh regular masks, 1.52 lakh litres of hand sanitiser and 18.4 lakh gloves.