Bengal surpasses 5 lakh Covid recoveries State’s total active case count fell to 19,597

State’s total active case count fell to 19,597, a decline of 52 consecutive days since Vijaya Dashami on October 26

With 42,473 tests on Thursday, the state’s total test count rose to 65.81 lakh, at 73,127 tests per million people. : Shutterstock

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Meghdeep Bhattacharyya   |   TT   |   Calcutta   |   18.12.20 :   Bengal on Thursday went past 5 lakh Covid-19 recoveries and a recovery rate of 94.56 per cent. 

The total active case count went below 20,000, back almost to where it was on July 28, 142 days ago.

With 2,747 more recoveries on Thursday, the total recovery count rose to nearly 5.02 lakh, 17 days after going past the 4.5 lakh mark.

“The first 50,000 of Bengal’s recoveries took 137 days (since the first infection was detected on March 17). We have been achieving the recent 50,000 recoveries in 12 to 17 days,” said a minister.

The state now has 5.3 lakh Covid-19 cases, including 5.02 recoveries and 9,235 deaths.

Bengal on Thursday logged 2,245 new infections and 44 deaths, 10 of which were from Calcutta.

The state’s total active case count fell to 19,597, a decline of 52 consecutive days since Vijaya Dashami on October 26, improving by over 47 per cent in this period.

“Our goal was to end the year with less than 23,000 active cases. Now we are already below 20,000… we are back to where we were nearly five months ago,” the minister said, praising the post-Puja turnaround. 

In these 52 days, the state has recorded over 1.91 lakh recoveries, outweighing the 1.76 lakh cases found.

The recovery rate has risen for 56 consecutive days. The national rate now is 95.4 per cent.

Of the total deaths, 7,751, or 83.9 per cent, were attributed to co-morbidities by the state government. The state’s mortality rate is now 1.74, compared to the 1.45 per cent nationally.

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 proved the efficacy of the court’s instructions.

With 42,473 tests on Thursday, the state’s total test count rose to 65.81 lakh, at 73,127 tests per million people.

The positive confirmation rate — the percentage of infections found in relation to the number of tests conducted — is 8.06 now, having improved fairly steadily from the 8.27 of November 20.

Bengal reported 18.71 per cent occupancy in the 13,588 beds earmarked for Covid-19 in the 102 dedicated hospitals for the pandemic, besides over 5.35 lakh telemedicine consultations so far this pandemic.