Bengal on Sunday reported a rising Covid-19 recovery rate for 100 days straight to touch 97.24 per cent. The national average is 96.97.
The state also logged 338 Covid-19 recoveries, 229 new cases and nine deaths, including one from Calcutta, on the last day of the first month of 2021. In January, the state saw some 24,000 recoveries, 18,000 cases, and 461 deaths, the lowest in months.
The state also saw a drop in its total active Covid-19 cases for the 97th consecutive day since Vijaya Dashami on October 26 last year, when there were 37,190 cases across the state, to 5,553 now. Bengal now has 3.33 per cent of India’s total Covid-19 active cases, around half of what it was last month.
“January 2021 has been as good to us as the last two months of 2020. We are confident of keeping up this momentum and ending February with even better figure,” said a minister.
“The daily toll has come down drastically from the 50-60 till about six weeks ago to single-digit figures. Calcutta alone used to report 20-30, which has come down to one or two now,” the minister pointed out.
However, Bengal’s mortality rate remained 1.78, while the national rate also was unchanged at 1.43 per cent. The state government attributed 8,541 deaths or 84 per cent of the total toll to comorbidities.
Bengal’s positive confirmation rate is 7.13 per cent now, having improved steadily from the 8.27, 72 days ago. On Sunday, the state reported 25,046 tests, taking the total past 79.95 lakh, at 88,843 tests per million people.
The state’s total of Covid-19 cases is nearly 5.7 lakh now, including over 5.54 lakh recoveries and 10,173 deaths.
Calcutta High Court had intervened to prevent a worsening of the pandemic over Durga Puja, Kali Puja, Diwali and Chhath. A similar set of instructions came from the high court, to ensure the outbreak did not worsen over the New Year celebrations. The number of infections between October and January has shown that the court’s instructions were effective.
