61 more die of Covid in Bengal

The total cases went past 2.25 lakh, of which nearly 1.96 lakh were recoveries

Meghdeep Bhattacharyya   |   TT   |   Calcutta   |   21.09.20  :  Bengal on Sunday logged 3,177 new Covid-19 cases, 61 deaths and 2,958 recoveries.

The total cases went past 2.25 lakh, of which nearly 1.96 lakh were recoveries and 4,359 deaths.

The recovery rate crossed 87 for the first time and is 87.05 now, far ahead of the national rate of 79.62 per cent.

“Despite the slight rise in the total number of active cases (24,806 on Sunday) over the past 10-12 days, the state is still out of the top 10 (12th position currently) in the list of states and Union territories with the most active cases. In terms of active ratio, it is in the 31st place. That’s how decent our performance, even at this stage of the pandemic, is,” said a Bengal minister.

Of the total 4,359 deaths, Calcutta alone accounted for 1,581, with 15 reported on Sunday. North 24-Parganas reported a total of 981 deaths, 16 of them on Sunday.

The state government reported 3,734 deaths (85.7 per cent) as those with comorbidity “present”.

Bengal’s overall mortality rate is now 1.93, still behind the national rate of 1.6 per cent.

“Despite a lot of efforts, we are yet to lower our mortality rate to far less than 2. That is because we have been plateauing out in the daily count of both new cases and deaths. For a substantial drop in the mortality rate, either the number of daily deaths has to decline sharply or the number of new cases has to see a spike,” said the minister.

“The chief minister set a target of halving the mortality rate, weeks ago. But it has not been easy and we haven’t been able to get close yet,” he added.

On the plus side, having conducted over 9 lakh tests already in September, the total test count is nearly 27.91 lakh now. With substantial ramp-up in testing, the state quadrupled its daily testing in two months, conducting 45,656 on Sunday.

The tests per million count is now 31,006, which was 20,974 even at the beginning of September.

Steady rise in testing, coupled with no marked increase in the number of new cases being found, has improved the positive confirmation rate from 8.9 on August 23 to 8.07 per cent. A decreasing positive confirmation rate is indicative of reducing levels of Covid-19 spread.

The state reported 33.94 per cent occupancy on 12,675 beds earmarked for Covid-19 at 92 dedicated hospitals for the pandemic.

Over 2.34 lakh telemedicine consultations for the pandemic were provided, including 4,182 in the past 24 hours.