Bengal logs 3,181 new Covid cases, 56 deaths

The state reported a rise in total active cases for the 19th consecutive day

Meghdeep Bhattacharyya   |   TT  |  Calcutta   |    27.09.20 : Bengal on Saturday logged 3,181 new Covid-19 cases, 56 deaths and 2,955 recoveries.

With this, Bengal’s total cases went past 2.44 lakh, of which nearly 2.14 lakh are recoveries and 4,721 are deaths.

Rising by 170, Bengal reported 25,544 active cases (minus deaths and recoveries). The state reported a rise in total active Covid-19 cases for the 19th consecutive day.

Of 4,721 deaths, Calcutta so far accounted for 1,652, with 13 on Saturday. North 24-Parganas, with 14 deaths on Saturday, reached a toll of 1,064.

The state government reported 4,027, or 85.3 per cent, as deaths with comorbidity “present”.

Comorbidities are underlying health disorders, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular or kidney ailments, believed to increase chances of death for infected patients.

A minister said there had been relatively less comorbid deaths over the past month.

“From 87.2 per cent comorbid deaths (on August 26), we are at 85.3. Of the 1,757 deaths in this window, 82 per cent were comorbid. In the month before that (July 26), 89 per cent of deaths were comorbid,” said the minister.

Bengal’s overall mortality rate remained at 1.93, still substantially behind the national rate of 1.57 per cent. However, Bengal’s recovery rate was 87.61 per cent, ahead of national 82.17 per cent.

With over 11.67 lakh tests already in September, the total test count went past 30.55 lakh on Saturday, at 33,945 tests per million people. The state reported 43,285 tests on Saturday.

Positive confirmation rate — the percentage of total cases found out of the total number of tests conducted — went down from 8.9 on August 23 to below 8 now, at 7.99 per cent.

“Steady decline of positive confirmation rate, despite the heights we achieved in testing, is a heartening indicator,” said the minister, as decreasing positive confirmation rate indicates reducing levels of Covid-19 spread.

The state reported 35.47 per cent occupancy in the 12,675 beds earmarked for Covid-19 in the 92 dedicated hospitals for the pandemic.

Over 2.58 lakh telemedicine consultations for the pandemic were provided, including 4,126 in the past 24 hours.