State Covid deaths cross 10,000- recovery rate 96.93 per cent

Since the first death from Covid-19 had been reported on March 23, the state took 297 days for the toll from the pandemic to cross 10,000

The total of active cases dropped for the 80th consecutive day since October 26 last year, which was Vijaya Dashami.: Shutterstock

Meghdeep Bhattacharyya   |   TT   |   Calcutta   |    15.01.21 : Bengal on Thursday logged 694 Covid-19 recoveries, 680 infections and 17 deaths as the toll crossed 10,000 to touch 10,010.

Since the first death from Covid-19 had been reported on March 23, the state took 297 days for the toll from the pandemic to cross 10,000.

Bengal had logged 500 deaths on June 17, 1,000 on July 15, 2,000 on August 8, 3,000 on August 27, 4,000 on September 14, 5,000 on October 1, 6,000 on October 18, 7,000 on November 3, 8,000 on November 22, and 9,000 on December 12.

“The latest 1,000 deaths occurred over 33 days, slower — hence, better — than the 16-20 days it had taken for the previous few thousands,” said a Bengal minister.

The total of active cases dropped for the 80th consecutive day since October 26 last year, which was Vijaya Dashami.

The total of active cases is now 7,272 having improved by over five times, from 37,190 on October 26.

The recovery rate has risen for 84 consecutive days, from 87.44, to 96.93 per cent, leading the national rate by over 0.4 per cent.

“The reduction of the mortality rate is the only area we still have some work to do,” said the minister. 

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

A similar set of instructions came from the high court to ensure that the outbreak didn’t worsen over the New Year celebrations.

“Thursday was Day 10 for someone who got infected on January 5…. It is between days six and 10 of the infection that most cases get detected. We can deduce, with a fair bit of certainty now, that even the revelry of the Christmas-New Year period did not worsen the outbreak,” said the minister.

The minister said reducing mortality in infected males was now a top priority. “We had managed to lower it to 1.98... then it kept rising again. Now it is 2.06. We are trying to ascertain the causes.” 

Another phenomenon the state was observing, he said, was the spike in deaths of patients with hypertension as a comorbidity.

“Hypertension has, through the pandemic, been the biggest killer. But its share in the death count has suddenly spiked from a fourth to a third, rapidly. In both infected males and females. This also needs to be addressed immediately,” he added.