Bengal on Saturday reported a drop in its total active Covid-19 cases for the 75th consecutive day, since Vijaya Dashami on October 26, with the total cases falling from 37,190 to 8,034, improving by over 78 per cent.

The state logged 978 recoveries, 787 new infections and 20 deaths on Saturday, including five from Calcutta, in the 24-hour window ending 9am.

Bengal now has around 3.6 per cent of the nation’s active cases, down from over 7 per cent in about a month.

Bengal’s recovery rate has risen for 79 consecutive days, by over 9 per cent, to 96.79. The national rate now is 96.4 per cent. “We will go past 98 in recovery rate and fall below 5,000 in total active cases by the time vaccination takes off,” said a minister, adding Bengal “was doing exemplarily well, given the size and density of our population”.

Since Durga Puja-end, Bengal reported nearly 2.32 lakh recoveries and 2.06 lakh new infections.

Calcutta High Court intervened to prevent crowding and worsening of the pandemic over Durga Puja, Kali Puja, Diwali and Chhath. A similar set of instructions came from the high court before New Year celebrations. The numbers of infections from the festivals in October and November, and so far in 2021, showed that the court’s instructions were effective.

The state’s positive confirmation rate is 7.56 per cent now, having improved steadily from the 8.27 of November 20. Bengal’s total test count — including 34,221 tests on Saturday — went past 74.06 lakh, at 82,293 tests per million people.

The state’s Covid-19 total of 5.59 lakh cases includes nearly 5.42 lakh recoveries and 9,922 deaths. Bengal’s mortality rate is now 1.77, compared to the 1.44 per cent nationally. The state government attributed 8,327 deaths or 83.9 per cent of the total toll to comorbidities.