Covid cases surge, Didi underlines recoveries- The state's total active cases as of Tuesday stood at 5,761

Meghdeep Bhattacharyya   |   TT   |   Calcutta   |   01.07.20   : Bengal set a new record for fresh Covid-19 cases in 24 hours, with 652 till 9am on Tuesday, surpassing Monday’s count of 624.

The state’s Covid-19 toll rose by 15 to touch 668. Of them, Calcutta alone accounted for 379.

Bengal reported 2,911 new cases in just five days, nullifying some of the remarkable progress made in the 12-day period before that. But Bengal’s recovery rate, at 65.35, still remained considerably ahead of the national rate of 59.17 per cent.

With 411 new recoveries in 24 hours, the total number of recoveries rose to 12,130 out of 18,559 total Covid-19 cases recorded in the state since the onset of the pandemic. In the past two weeks, Bengal has seen 7,065 new cases, but with 6,636 recoveries.

“Our discharge (release of Covid-19 patients after recovery) rate is higher than the national average,” said chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday.

“There has been some increase… because a lot of people have been on the move. There is a tendency now of a rise. But we are doing our best despite that. Despite the immense population and its density…. Lakhs and lakhs have come home from outside,” she added.

The total active cases as of Tuesday stood at 5,761.

Of the 652 new cases, 98 per cent were reported from districts with a high volume of returnees. Over 14 lakh migrant workers have already returned to the state. Calcutta alone reported 231 new cases.

Of the total deaths, the state government reported 507  or 75.9 per cent as deaths with comorbidity “present”.

Bengal’s overall mortality rate stood at 3.59 per cent compared to Calcutta’s 6.33 . The  national rate is 2.96 per cent.

The state reported 9,619 Covid-19 tests in 24 hours, taking the total test count to 4,88,038, with 5,423 tests per million. A month ago, Bengal had conducted a total of 2.03 lakh Covid-19 tests, with 2,264 tests per million.

“We will go past the landmark of 5 lakh tests by July 2. On May 19, we had conducted 1 lakh tests,” said the minister.

However, owing to the considerable rise in new cases, the positive confirmation rate — or the percentage of people found infected among those tested — deteriorated from 2.7 per cent to 3.8 per cent in a month.

The state also reported occupancy of 22.44 per cent in the 10,479 Covid-19 beds in 78 dedicated hospitals, besides 5.74 per cent occupancy in the 6,908 beds of the 106 safe homes.