Bengal on Tuesday reported 3,227 new Covid-19 cases, 59 deaths and 2,996 recoveries as the total number of patients went above 2.09 lakh, of whom 1.81 lakh had been cured and 4,062 had succumbed to the pathogen.

After a 15-day streak of a fall in the total count of active cases ended on September 8, the state witnessed a rise in the number of existing patients for eight days on the trot on Tuesday.

The recovery rate, however, continued to climb and was 86.61 on Tuesday, a rise by over four per cent in the first 15 days of the current month. The national rate is 78.36 per cent now.

“Our recoveries will keep rising. In fact, we are third now on the list of states with the highest recovery rates, after Bihar (91) and Tamil Nadu (89.2)…. We need to find ways to lower the surge in new cases and the steady toll of deaths,” said a Bengal minister.

“In these 15 days, there have been over 46,000 new cases, around 47,000 recoveries and 834 deaths. Overall, given the stage of the pandemic, we haven’t been doing badly, at all,” he added.

Bengal logged over 45,226 tests on Tuesday, taking the total past 25.62 lakh. The state now has 28,476 tests per million people. Fifteen days ago, the tests per million were 20,974.

Steady rise in the tests, coupled with relatively lower cases being found, has improved the positive confirmation rate from 8.9 on August 23 to 8.16 per cent. Deemed as a key indicator in the Covid-19 pandemic, the positive confirmation rate is the percentage of positive cases out of samples tested.

A decreasing positive confirmation rate is indicative of reducing levels of Covid-19 spread.

Of the 59 deaths reported in 24 hours, 11 were from Calcutta and 15 from North 24-Parganas. The two districts have contributed 60 per cent of all Covid-19 deaths since the first was recorded in Bengal on March 23.

Of the 4,062 total deaths, 3,483 (85.7 per cent) were reported as comorbid by the state government.

The overall mortality rate improved to 1.94, while the national rate is 1.63 per cent. Bengal continued to be seventh in the list of states with the highest mortality rates and on the list of states with the most deaths.

The state reported 32.87 per cent occupancy on 12,675 Covid-19 beds at 92 hospitals.

Nearly 2.13 lakh telemedicine consultations have been provided, including 4,273 in the past 24 hours.