Bengal on Thursday reported 530 new Covid-19 infections, 601 recoveries and 10 deaths.

The total number of active cases, or people being treated for Covid-19, fell by 81 to 7,576 on Mahanavami, the penultimate day of Durga Puja, Bengal’s biggest festival.

The state had snapped out of a 97-day streak of constant fall in its total of active cases on September 26. Since then, in the past 19 days, Bengal recorded a rise in its active cases for 12 days and a fall for six days.

The state now has 3.76 per cent of the national total of active cases, and is sixth on the list of states with the highest number of such cases.

Calcutta logged 102 new infections on Thursday and was the only one of the state’s 23 districts with a three-digit figure of new infections in a day.

Nine more districts reported a single-digit figure of new infections on Thursday.

Seventeen Bengal districts reported zero deaths on Thursday. Calcutta and North 24-Parganas reported two deaths each.

Bengal’s daily positive confirmation rate, which was nearly 33 per cent at the peak of the second wave, was 2.93 per cent on Thursday. As of now, the state’s recovery rate is 98.32 per cent, while the national rate is 98.04 per cent. The state’s mortality rate is 1.2, while that of the nation is 1.33 per cent.

“These are statistics of people who got infected around October 5 to 9. There were apprehensions of things going out of hand at that stage because of people’s general disregard for safety protocols. But figures now suggest otherwise,” said a minister.

Bengal now has over 15.79 lakh Covid-19 cases, since the first was logged in March last year. The total includes more than 15.52 lakh recoveries and 18,945 deaths.