The Bengal government on Monday reported discharge of 82 Covid-19 patients following cure in the past 24 hours, which takes the recovery rate to over 24 per cent.

While 124 new confirmed cases were reported in the past 24 hours, five patients died directly from the pathogen during the same period. The total number of active novel coronavirus positive cases in Bengal is 1,374 now.

As of 9am on Monday, in the first 11 days of May, 360 persons were reported cured, lifting the recovery rate by over six per cent to 24.19 per cent. Of the 499 total cured cases, 252 are from Calcutta, 79 from Howrah and 68 from North 24-Parganas.

In the past 24 hours, Bengal conducted 4,201 tests. A total of 47,615 tests have been conducted as of Monday. The current test rate of 529 per million people has risen by nearly three times in the past 11 days, from 183 on April 30.

The positive confirmation rate — the percentage of people found infected among those tested — has improved to 4.33 per cent, from 4.6 per cent on April 30.

“Things are beginning to look up, by way of considerably higher testing and lower positive confirmation rate. The recovery rate has also been going up. We are looking to go past the 5,000-tests a day mark in a week or so,” said a minister. “With higher testing figures, the mortality rate that seems high will normalise.”

There are currently 18 Centre-approved laboratories for testing novel coronavirus in the state, with four more awaiting approval as of Monday. The most tests have been conducted by NICED in Calcutta with 7,790 and North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in Siliguri with 7,710.

There are 6,689 people at the 582 state-run quarantine centres and another 23,296 people in home quarantine.