Bengal on Tuesday reported 752 new Covid-19 infections, 721 recoveries and seven deaths, prompting a rise by 24 in active cases, to 7,457.
On Tuesday, Calcutta logged 382 new infections, almost double from Monday’s 204 reported cases.
North 24-Parganas reported 102 new infections on Tuesday. These were Bengal’s only two districts with a three-digit figure of new cases detected in a day. Both Calcutta and North 24-Parganas reported two deaths each as well.
Calcutta, North and South 24-Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly and Nadia accounted for 633 or 84.18 per cent of new cases detected on Tuesday, with. over 60 per cent of those in Calcutta alone.
Thirteen districts reported a single-digit figure of new infections, 18 districts logged zero deaths.
Tuesday’s new infections indicated people infected between December 19 and 23. A government source attributed the spike to the Christmas-New Year spell of revelry.
“It is likely to stay restricted to Calcutta and its immediate neighbourhood, for now,” said the source.
On Sunday, Calcutta had reported 219 new infections.
Bengal’s daily positive confirmation rate has nearly doubled over the past few days, and was 2.35 per cent on Tuesday.
The state’s recovery rate is 98.33 per cent now, below the national rate of 98.4 per cent.
The state’s mortality rate is 1.21 per cent, while that of the nation is 1.34 per cent.
In the past 94 days since Bengal snapped out of a 97-day streak of constant fall in the total of active cases ahead of the Puja season on September 26, the total rose on 39 days and fell on 53 days. Over these 94 days, there has been a net fall of 217 in the total of Covid patients in the state.
Bengal now has nearly 16.32 lakh Covid-19 cases, since the first was logged in March last year. The total includes over 16.04 lakh recoveries and 19,733 deaths.