Bengal on Friday, Vijaya Dashami, reported 451 new Covid-19 infections, 506 recoveries and eight deaths.

The total of active Covid-19 cases fell by 63 to 7,513. Last year, Bengal’s total number of active cases on Dashami was 37,190.

Bengal snapped out of a 97-day streak of constant fall in the total of active cases on September 26 this year. Since then, in the past 20 days, Bengal recorded a rise in its active cases for 12 days, a fall for seven days and no change on one day.

“These are data of people infected in the October 6 to 10 window. There were adverse estimates of things worsening exponentially from around that time because of general disregard for safety protocols in the run-up to the festival. But these figures increasingly suggest that things were not so bad,” said a minister.

The state now has 3.84 per cent of India’s active cases, and is sixth among states with the most such cases.

With 127 new infections, Calcutta was only one of the state’s 23 districts with a three-digit figure of new infections in a day. Eleven districts reported a single-digit figure.

Twenty Bengal districts reported zero deaths on Friday. Calcutta reported three deaths and North 24-Parganas four.

The state’s recovery rate is 98.32 per cent, while the national rate is 98.05 per cent now. Bengal’s daily positive confirmation rate, which had risen to nearly 33 per cent at the peak of the second wave earlier this year, was 2.13 per cent on Friday. Its mortality rate is 1.2 per cent, while that of the nation is 1.33 per cent.

Bengal now has over 15.79 lakh Covid-19 cases since the first in March last year, which includes nearly 15.53 lakh recoveries and 18,953 deaths.