Total number of active Covid-19 cases dropped for the second consecutive day in Bengal on Wednesday in what was being deemed as a “major positive”.

The state’s total number of active cases, which were 37,190 on Monday, fell to 37,111 on Wednesday. The continuous decline is the first since a 15-day spell of such drop ended on September 7. Since Thursday, the state reported six consecutive days of decline in the daily count of new cases which were 3,924 on Wednesday. The death toll rose by 60.

More importantly, for the ninth consecutive day, the highest recovery count in a day was reset on Wednesday with 3,925. The last time, prior to Wednesday, the state reported more recoveries than new cases in a day was September 6.

“This is a major positive. We were so apprehensive of what the figures would look like after Puja. We could not have been more pleasantly surprised in the first two days,” said a Bengal minister.

The recovery rate, which had taken a tumble since the October 6 high of 87.98, rose again to 87.9 on Wednesday. The national rate is 90.84 per cent now.

It remains to be seen whether Calcutta High Court’s intervention to keep unbridled revelry from turning the outbreak into a full-fledged public health emergency was effective. The impact of the Puja days would be seen in the Covid-19 figures from this weekend.

“The new patients are largely people who got infected in the weekend before the Puja when shopping rush and a near-total disregard for safety protocols were witnessed. That’s what prompted the judiciary to step in,” said the minister.

“In that context, these numbers make us very hopeful…. We will cautiously wait to examine the numbers over the next few days. But if this is the onset of a new trend, we are looking at a remarkable turnaround, which nobody had anticipated,” he added.

Bengal’s total cases now are over 3.61 lakh, including nearly 3.18 lakh recoveries and 6,664 deaths.

With 42,553 tests on Wednesday, Bengal went past 44 lakh tests, to touch 44.25 lakh, at 49,169 tests per million people. The positive confirmation rate is 8.17 per cent now.

Of the total 6,664 deaths reported, the state government attributed 5,610 (84.2 per cent) to comorbidities.

Bengal’s overall mortality rate is 1.84, still behind the national rate of 1.5 per cent.

The state reported 35.57 per cent occupancy on 12,811 beds earmarked for Covid-19 at 94 dedicated hospitals. Besides, 3.85 lakh telemedicine consultations have been made so far for the pandemic.