Bengal on Sunday logged 15,882 Covid-19 recoveries, 7,002 infections and 107 deaths, reporting a drop by 8,987 in total active cases, to 35,454.

The state’s total active cases, at an all-time high of 1,32,181 on May 21, declined by over 73 per cent in 16 days.

The occupancy rate of hospital beds for Covid-19 patients has fallen from 37.66 per cent on May 21 to 23.28, despite the number of such beds increasing from 21,696 to 24,721.

Bengal now has 2.53 per cent of the national total of active cases, and is eighth among states with the most such cases. The daily confirmation rate, which peaked in the second wave at nearly 33 per cent, fell to below 10 per cent on Sunday.

A decreasing positive confirmation rate is indicative of reducing levels of Covid-19 spread.

“With the daily confirmation rate falling to 9.99 per cent, we have achieved yet another goal, towards working our way out of the nightmare of this second wave. Now, we will work towards lowering it to less than 5, then 3 per cent, over the rest of this month,” said a minister.

Bengal’s recovery rate rose for the 36th consecutive day, rising by nearly 12 percentage points over five weeks, to 96.37 per cent on Sunday. The national rate now is 93.9.

Of the 107 deaths reported on Sunday, 23 were reported from Calcutta and 34 from North 24-Parganas, the two worst affected districts. Calcutta logged 645 new infections, North 24-Parganas 1,434. Bengal’s overall mortality rate is 1.14 per cent, while the national rate is 1.2.

The state now has a total of 14.26 lakh cases since the start of the pandemic last year in March, which includes 13.74 lakh recoveries and 16,259 deaths.