Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday highlighted some significant positive aspects of Bengal’s fight against the second wave of Covid-19, on a day the state reported a rise by only 19 in total number of active cases and 18,910 recoveries against 19,091 infections.

At a news conference in the state secretariat in the afternoon, Mamata said Bengal’s weekly positive confirmation rate had been improving.

“It has come down to 28.7, from the high of 32.8 per cent earlier in the second wave,” she said.

The positive confirmation rate on Thursday was 27.02, having improved by over 2.5 percentage from 29.57 exactly a week ago and by over 3.6 from two weeks ago.

The overall positive confirmation rate is now 10.33, which is the eighth highest in India.

On Thursday, the state reported 162 deaths — the highest ever in a 24-hour period this pandemic.

Bengal is currently 18th on the list of states with the highest mortality rates.

“The mortality rate is significantly lower, 0.69 per cent in this phase of Covid-19,” said the chief minister.

Mamata said the state had firmly focused on renewed capacity augmentation in the wake of the second wave.

“We have 234 Covid-19 hospitals, including 41 requisitioned private hospitals. We have 40,000 beds with oxygen support. Occupancy rate is barely 40 (38.49) per cent,” she said.