Bengal on Wednesday logged 794 Covid-19 recoveries, 723 infections and 18 deaths as the total of active cases dropped for the 79th consecutive day since Vijaya Dashami on October 26 last year.

The total number of active patients now are 7,303, having improved by over five times, from 37,190 on October 26.

The recovery rate has risen for 83 consecutive days, from 87.44, to 96.93 per cent. The current national rate is 96.5.

“Our total of active cases will be below 6,000 and the recovery rate ought to be above 98 by the end of this month. Our pandemic management has been exemplary,” said a minister.

The state’s positive confirmation rate is 7.48 per cent now, having improved steadily over 54 days, from 8.27.

Bengal’s total count of sample examination is now nearly 75.28 lakh, including 30,107 tests logged on Wednesday. The tests per million people are 83,644.

The 18 deaths reported on Wednesday included five from the city. Since the end of Puja, the state reported nearly 2.35 lakh recoveries, outweighing the 2.08 lakh infections detected during the same period.

“Wednesday was Day 10 for someone who got infected on January 4…. 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.

Bengal’s Covid-19 total of 5.62 lakh cases include nearly 5.45 lakh recoveries and 9,993 deaths.

The state attributed 8,384 (83.9 per cent) of the total deaths to comorbidities.

Bengal’s mortality rate is now 1.77, compared to 1.44 per cent at the national level.