Bengal on Thursday reported a drop in its total active Covid-19 cases for the 24th consecutive day since the end of Durga Puja, recording 1,01,673 recoveries during this period that outweighed the 91,683 new infections found.

On Thursday, the state logged 3,990 recoveries, 3,620 new cases and 53 deaths, among which 12 each were reported from Calcutta and North 24-Parganas.

The state’s total active cases, which was 37,190 on Vijaya Dashami (October 26), is 25,873 now, back almost to where it was on September 27.

The state’s recovery rate, currently on an unbroken spell of rise for 28 consecutive days, rose to a new high of 92.43, nudging the national rate of 93.59 per cent.

“Over a lakh recoveries in a short span is a huge morale boost, as is the total of active cases falling to the region of 25,000. We hope to be able to continue with this turnaround...,” said a state minister.

The state’s total caseload is over 4.45 lakh now, including nearly 4.12 lakh recoveries and 7,873 deaths.

Calcutta High Court had intervened to prevent a worsening of the pandemic over Durga Puja. The numbers of infections from Puja showed that the intervention was effective. The high court issued a similar set of instructions for Kali Puja, Diwali and Chhath.

“Prior to this post-Puja turnaround were those six relentless weeks of major spike in infections and relatively fewer recoveries. We hope we won’t see another such spell this pandemic,” said the minister.

With 44,263 tests on Thursday, the state’s total test count is nearly 53.9 lakh, at 59,888 tests per million people. The positive confirmation rate remained 8.27 per cent.

Of the total death toll, 6,577, or 83.5 per cent, were attributed to co-morbidities. The state’s mortality rate is 1.76, still less than the national rate of 1.46 per cent.

“In the 24 days since the end of Puja, there have been 1,327 deaths, including 1,063 (80.1 per cent) co-morbid deaths. The mortality rate has improved from 1.85 to 1.76,” said the minister.

The state reported 28.97 per cent occupancy in the 13,508 beds earmarked for Covid-19 in the 101 dedicated hospitals for the pandemic, besides over 4.6.3 lakh telemedicine consultations so far this pandemic.