Bengal on Saturday reported 281 new Covid-19 infections (including 38 from Calcutta), a three-digit figure in a 24-hour period for 13 consecutive days.

The state also logged 1,346 recoveries and 13 deaths, resulting in a drop in active cases by 1,088 to 6,648 on Saturday. Now, the total of active cases is not just lower than the pre-third wave level of 7,457 of December 28 last year but also lowest since April 1 last year.

The positive confirmation rate — the percentage of samples testing positive — improved further to 0.79 per cent, from 0.90 on Friday.

It means one out of every 126 returned positive.

The recovery rate is now 98.62 per cent. The national rate is 98.21 now.

Between December 29 and January 16, it had dropped by eight percentage points, before recovering by over eight percentage points over these 34 days.

In the 34 days, the state reported 2.68 lakh recoveries, which outweighed the 1.15 lakh new infections detected.

Eighteen of the state’s 23 districts reported zero deaths. Calcutta reported three. The mortality rate is 1.05 per cent now.

Bengal has over 20.13 lakh cases now, since the first was detected in the state in March, 2020. The total includes more than 19.85 lakh recoveries and 21,119 deaths.