Active Covid cases dip for 40 days on trot- The state’s mortality rate is now 1.73 and recovery rate 93.47 per cent.

Cases fell from 37,190 to 23,964, with nearly 1.57 lakh recoveries compared to 1.45 lakh new infections

On Saturday, the state reported 44,389 tests, taking the total past 60.91 lakh, at 67,685 tests per million people. The positive confirmation rate is 8.2 per cent now.: Shutterstock

Meghdeep Bhattacharyya   |   TT   |   Calcutta   |    06.12.20  :  Bengal on Saturday reported a drop in total active Covid-19 cases for the 40th consecutive day since Dashami on October 26, with 3,207 recoveries, 3,175 new infections and 49 deaths in 24 hours till 9am.

Over the 40 days, active cases fell from 37,190 to 23,964, with nearly 1.57 lakh recoveries compared to 1.45 lakh new infections, which a minister called “exemplary at this stage”. Its caseload of over 4.99 lakh infections has 4.67 lakh recoveries and 8,677 deaths. The state’s mortality rate is now 1.73 and recovery rate 93.47 per cent. 

“In what is a significant improvement, the mortality rate for infected males fell to less than 2 (to 1.99 per cent). That, for infected females, is 1.32 now. Before this 40-day period of turnaround, the rate for males was 2.09, and 1.45 for females,” said the minister.

But it is still behind the national rate of 1.45 per cent.

Of the 49 deaths reported on Saturday, 14 were from the city. The total toll includes 7,268 or 83.8 per cent comorbid deaths.

The recovery rate, currently in an unbroken spell of rise for 44 consecutive days, rose to a new high of 93.47. The national rate now is 94.33 per cent.

“We are looking to end the year with less than 23,000 active cases and a recovery rate of over 95. We are on track to achieve both, at the moment,” said the minister.

Calcutta High Court had intervened to prevent a worsening of the pandemic over Durga Puja, Kali Puja, Diwali and Chhath. The numbers of infections from the festivals in October and November has shown that the court’s instructions were effective.

“There might be similar instructions for the Christmas-New Year spell of festivities,” said the minister.

On Saturday, the state reported 44,389 tests, taking the total past 60.91 lakh, at 67,685 tests per million people. The positive confirmation rate is 8.2 per cent now.

The state reported 25.27 per cent occupancy in the 13,538 beds earmarked for Covid-19 in the 102 dedicated hospitals for the pandemic, besides over 5.08 lakh telemedicine consultations so far this pandemic.