Bengal held 36,318 Covid-19 tests on Saturday to go past 15 lakh in the total number of tests since the onset of the pandemic, 95 days after the first lakh and covering the latest lakh in three days.

Bengal reported 3,232 new cases and 48 deaths on one hand, and 3,088 more cures, on the other, in 24 hours till Saturday 9am. Twelve died in Calcutta and nine in North 24-Parganas.

The number of cases now is over 1.35 lakh, but nearly 1.05 lakh of those are recoveries, while 2,737 are deaths.

The recovery rate is at 77.41 per cent, while the national rate is 74.84 per cent.

In 22 days of August, the state has conducted around 6.31 lakh tests, after taking over six months to get past the 6 lakh tests mark, on July 11.

“We are now looking to get past 40,000 in daily testing. Our tests per million has gone up from 9,927 at the beginning of August to 16,935 now,” said a minister. The state now has conducted 15,24,62 tests in all, having begun testing in early February.

Bengal took over three-and-a-half months to get past 1 lakh, on May 19, then 10-12 days each to cross the early milestones of 2-5 lakh tests.

“At the 10-12 lakh levels, we covered each lakh (of tests) in four days. Now, we are taking only three days per lakh…,” said the minister. “A World Health Organisation advisory specifies a daily minimum of 140 tests per million. Now, we are at 404. We are looking to get past 500 soon. Even when August began, we were at 211,” he added.

Owing to the sharp spike in new cases, the positive confirmation rate is now 8.9 per cent. It was 6.83 a month ago.

Of the 3,232 new cases, Calcutta reported 516 and North 24-Parganas, 547.

But Calcutta also reported 708 recoveries and North 24-Parganas logged 651, hence the total active cases for the two high-incidence districts fell again, on the lines of the welcome trend that began on August 9.

Of the total 2,737 deaths reported, Calcutta accounted for 1,166 and North 24-Parganas reported 629 deaths so far. The state reported 2,398, or 87.6 per cent of them, as deaths with co-morbidity “present”.

Bengal’s overall mortality rate remained 2.01, still behind the national rate of 1.86 per cent. Calcutta’s mortality rate is 3.26.

The state reported 36.71 per cent occupancy in the 12,035 beds earmarked for Covid-19 in the 87 dedicated hospitals for the pandemic.

Telemedicine consultation for the pandemic was provided to 1.1 lakh, including 4,539 in the past 24 hours.