Malda South MP and Congress veteran Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury was diagnosed with Covid-19 and admitted to a private hospital in Calcutta as Bengal on Monday reported 3,348 new infections, 61 deaths and 3,009 recoveries.

Abu Hasem, 82 is the brother of late Bengal Congress stalwart A.B.A. Ghani Khan Choudhury.

Khan Choudhury is the fifth Bengal MP — after the BJP’s Hooghly MP Locket Chatterjee, Balurghat MP Sukanta Majumdar, Jalpaiguri MP Jayanta Roy and Trinamul’s Rajya Sabha member Shanta Chhetri — to test positive for the pathogen.

With the 3,357 new cases, the state’s total case count went past 2.73 lakh, of which nearly 2.41 lakh are recoveries, besides 5,255 deaths.

Bengal’s recovery rate reached 87.95, ahead of the national rate of 84.52 per cent.

Of the 61 deaths, 16 were from Calcutta and nine from North 24-Parganas. Bengal’s overall mortality rate was 1.92, behind the national rate of 1.54 per cent. As of Monday, the state government reported 4,462 or 84.9 per cent as deaths with co-morbidity “present”.

The state logged 40,140 tests on Monday, which took the total past 34 lakh, to 34.38 lakh, at 38,201 tests per million people.

Having begun testing in early February, the state took over three-and-a-half months to conduct one lakh tests. Over the next four-and-a-half months, it conducted over 33 lakh.

Bengal’s positive confirmation rate remained 7.96 per cent.

The state reported 37.51 per cent occupancy of 12,715 Covid-19 beds in 92 hospitals and over 2.95 lakh telemedicine consultations.