Bengal on Sunday reported 3,185 Covid-19 infections and 60 deaths, besides 2,946 recoveries, as the total number of patients went past 2.47 lakh, of whom nearly 2.17 lakh were cured and 4,781 succumbed to the disease.

The recovery rate is now 87.67 — an improvement by over 7 per cent in a month — while the national rate is 82.35 per cent.

The total of active cases rose for the 20th consecutive day to 25,723 on Sunday.

Calcutta alone reported 615 new cases, while North 24-Parganas had 670. But Calcutta also logged 579 recoveries, while North 24-Parganas reported 534.

Calcutta, which had reached a high of 7,041 active cases by August 9, had improved to 4,067 by September 8.

However, with the return of the rise, the city reported 4,944 active cases on Sunday.

“But we cannot yet say that the good work of a month, till the first week of September, has been undone. The reversal of the trend of improvement has set us back by a few weeks. That’s all,” said a Bengal minister.

Of the total 4,781 deaths reported, the city alone accounted for 1,669, with 17 recorded on Sunday. North 24-Parganas reported a total of 1,069 deaths, five of them on Sunday.

The state government reported 4,075 deaths (85.2 per cent) as those with comorbidity “present”. Bengal’s overall mortality rate remained 1.93, still behind the national rate of 1.57 per cent. Calcutta’s mortality rate is 3.06.

“The mortality rate of infected males has improved to 2.15 from 2.17 per cent in a month. Infected females’ mortality rate is now 1.55, from 1.65 a month ago,” said the minister.

With 43,618 tests, the total stopped just short of 30.99 lakh, at 34,430 tests per million people.

“We were at 19,073 tests per million even a month ago. In September alone — with three days remaining — we have already conducted over 12.11 lakh tests,” said the minister.

Steady rise in the tests, coupled with no major increase in the number of new cases, has improved the positive confirmation rate — the percentage of total cases found out of the total number of tests conducted — from 8.9 on August 23 to 7.98 per cent. A decreasing positive confirmation rate is indicative of reducing levels of Covid-19 spread.

The state reported 36.09 per cent occupancy on 12,675 beds earmarked for Covid-19 at 92 dedicated hospitals.

Over 2.62 lakh telemedicine consultations for the pandemic were provided, including 4,087 in the past 24 hours.