Bengal on Tuesday logged 21,098 Covid-19 cases, including 6,565 from Calcutta.

The total of active cases rose by 13,042 to reach 1,02,236 as the state recorded 8,037 recoveries and 19 deaths also on Tuesday. This is the first time that the total number of active patients went above the one lakh mark after May 29 last year, 227 days ago.

The positive confirmation rate was 32.35 on Tuesday although the number of tests rose by around 14,000 compared to the previous day. Monday’s positive confirmation rate was 37.32.

This was the first instance of a dip in the positive confirmation rate — the percentage of samples testing positive for the novel coronavirus — in weeks. A month ago, it was 1.63.

Despite the slight dip on Tuesday, the positive confirmation rate of 32.35 still means that one out of every three tests in the state returns positive. Estimates suggest Calcutta’s positive confirmation rate might even go past 70, which means seven out of every 10 samples tested in the city turn up positive.

A positive confirmation rate up to 5 per cent is considered tolerable in a pandemic. At the peak of the second wave last year, the rate had climbed to 33 per cent.

Even on December 28 — the last day of relatively normal numbers before the latest spell of the surge in Bengal — the statewide total was 752, which included 382 from Calcutta. The total active caseload then was 7,457.

In the two weeks since, the state has logged 1.63 lakh new infections, including 65,129 from Calcutta.

The recovery rate slid further on Tuesday to 93.2, from 93.85 per cent on Monday, having dropped by over five percentage points in these two weeks. The national rate is 96.36 now.

The surge was initially confined to the city and its immediate neighbourhood. The trigger then was identified by sources in the state government as the general disregard for Covid-19 safety protocols among revellers in Calcutta and the surrounding areas in the run-up to Christmas. However, it has become increasingly clear since that the spike was part of a much larger, nationwide wave and not an isolated regional phenomenon.

Calcutta and its immediate neighbourhood of North 24-Parganas, South 24-Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly and Nadia accounted for 15,521 (73.57 per cent) of the new infections on Tuesday.

Seventeen of the state’s 23 districts reported zero deaths. Calcutta reported six fatalities.

The state’s mortality rate is 1.11, while that of the nation is 1.3 per cent.

Bengal now has over 17.95 lakh Covid-19 cases, since the first was logged in March 2020. The total does include more than 16.73 lakh recoveries and 19,936 deaths.