Record in fresh Covid-19 cases and tests -The total number of patients in the state crossed 38,000 and cured cases zoomed past 22,000

Meghdeep Bhattacharyya   |   TT   |   Calcutta   |  18.07.20  :  Friday turned out to be yet another eventful day for Bengal on the Covid-19 front as the state set a hat-trick of records in fresh cases, recoveries and tests.

While the number of fresh cases were 1,894, the state reported 838 recoveries for a 24-hour period till 9am on Friday. The intra-day test count was 13,240.

The total number of coronavirus patients crossed 38,000 and cured cases zoomed past 22,000.

The previous highest intra-day number of patients were 1,690 and tests 13,180, both reported on Thursday. A day before, the state had set the record in the number of cured patients.

In just seven days, Bengal logged 10,902 new cases. The state has had 22,363 new cases in 22 days since June 26 when the ongoing spell of rise began.

“The past three weeks have appeared rather grim. We had initially hoped it was an aberration,” said a Bengal minister.

The state logged 26 deaths from the pathogen on Friday, taking the toll to 1,049. Calcutta alone accounted for 549 deaths, 12 of which were recorded during a 24-hour period till 9am on Friday. North 24-Parganas reported a total of 200 deaths, seven of them on Friday.

Out of the 1,049 deaths, 863 or 82.3 per cent were termed as those with comorbidity “present” by the state government.

The minister said the positive takeaways were the rising recoveries and the ramp-up of testing. “In one week, we had 4,905 recoveries and 82,381 tests,” he added.

The recovery rate, which was nearly past the 67 per cent mark, nosedived from the July 4 high of 66.72 to 58.54 per cent on Friday. The national rate, which had been lagging behind the state’s rate by seven to nine per cent, has now gone past with 63.16.

Of the 1,894 fresh cases, over three-fourths were reported from Calcutta and four surrounding districts, which all have high population density. The city alone reported 563 cases, while North 24-Parganas logged 443.

“These five districts have added 17,681 new cases in the past 22 days. Calcutta and North 24-Parganas alone have nearly 20,000 cases between them now. Even if one considers active cases, they have 8,253,” said the minister.

The state’s total test count is now 6,76,348 — with 7,515 tests per million. Authorities hope the test count will get past 7 lakh by Sunday and 8 lakh by July 26.

However, owing to the sharp spike in new cases, the positive confirmation rate — the percentage of people found infected among those tested — deteriorated drastically from 3.56 to 5.62 per cent in the  22 days.

While Bengal’s overall mortality rate improved to 2.75, from 3.87 per cent 22 days ago, that of the city is 4.56 now. The national rate now is 2.53 per cent.

Over 7.21 lakh people successfully completed quarantine. Barely 31,000 now remain in quarantine.

“We are all but done with the management of returning migrant workers. Only 230 of them remain in institutional quarantine now. Lakhs and lakhs successfully completed quarantine in the past few weeks,” said the minister.