Bengal on Monday reported a recovery rate of 60.5 per cent, an improvement of 13 per cent in a week.

This brings Bengal’s recovery rate ahead of the national rate of around 55 per cent.

The total number of active cases in Bengal stood at 5,102 on Monday. In nine days, the state reported 4,145 recoveries or nearly 48 per cent of the total number of recoveries.

“All this and more will be discussed in the all-party meeting (on Wednesday) on Covid-19. The total active cases in the state has been showing a downward trend ….As of today, there are barely 5,000-odd active cases,” said state home secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay. “The total discharges (recoveries) in Bengal are rising. Till today, there are over 8,000 (8,687) discharges. The discharge (recovery) rate is above 60 per cent, ahead of the national discharge rate of around 55.”

However, Bengal reported 14 more Covid-19 deaths, which took the total pandemic toll to 569. Of them, the state reported 417 — 73.3 per cent — as deaths with comorbidity “present”. Calcutta reported the most deaths, at 336. Of the 413 new Covid-19 cases reported on Monday, over 97 per cent were from districts with a high volume of returnees. Calcutta reported 81.

On the bright side, Bengal reported 9,363 tests in 24 hours, taking the total test count to 410,854, with 4,565 tests per million.