Bengal on Wednesday smashed the 24-hour record for new Covid-19 cases, with 986 reported till 9am, substantially higher than the 895 reported on Sunday, taking the total cases past 24,000 to 24,823.

The 24-hour Covid toll in Bengal was 23 on Wednesday with six from Calcutta.

The alarming rise in new infections since June 26, which apparently accelerated from June 29, prompted the Mamata Banerjee government to reintroduce lockdown in some Calcutta hubs and several other urban and semi-urban centres across the state.

Last week, more than 600 new cases were reported daily between Monday (June 29) and Friday. On Saturday, it went past 700. On Sunday, it stopped just short of 900, at 895.

“In 10 days, the state recorded exactly 7,000 new cases and 188 deaths. The total active cases now is 7,705, risen by 2,300 in these 10 days,” said a minister.

He said 5,098 recoveries over those 10 days was a positive. “The negatives have outweighed the positives. But even on Wednesday, there were 501 new recoveries, taking the total past 16,000 to 16,291. The recovery rate now is 65.62 per cent, which was 64.76 ten days ago and 40.22 a month ago,” he added.

The national recovery rate is 62.05 now.

Of the 827 deaths reported in Bengal since the onset of the pandemic, Calcutta alone accounted for 444, North 24-Parganas for 144, Howrah for 114. Calcutta reported six deaths on Wednesday. The state government reported 658, or 79.6 per cent, as deaths with comorbidity “present”. While Bengal’s mortality rate stood at 3.33 per cent, that of Calcutta was 5.51. The national rate now is 2.75 per cent.

Of the new cases, around 96 per cent were from districts that experienced a high volume of returnees. Calcutta reported 366 on Wednesday, while North 24-Parganas reported 223, Howrah 106 and South 24-Parganas 103.

The state’s total test count is now 5,72,523, with 6,361 tests per million. On Wednesday, 10,386 tests were reported.