Bengal on Friday logged 19,847 Covid-19 cases, 159 deaths from the disease and 19,017 recoveries as the total count of active patients rose to over 1.32 lakh.

Bengal has 4.52 per cent of active cases at the national level and is now sixth on the list of states with patients currently under treatment.

However, sources in the state government said two key parameters offered scope for cautious optimism.

With a positive confirmation rate of 25.56 per cent, out of 77,627 tests reported on Friday, the state showed some early signs of overall improvement, although Calcutta and its neighbourhood, especially North 24-Parganas, remained heavily affected. The positive confirmation rate a week ago was 29.75, and 29.76 a fortnight ago.

Deemed a key indicator, 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’s spread.

“We expect the positive confirmation rate to fall by about 10 percentage points over the next couple of weeks,” said a minister.

Bengal is currently eighth on the list of states with the highest positive confirmation rate.

In another significantly positive development, the recovery rate rose for the 20th consecutive day to reach 88.11 per cent, riding the consistently large number of recoveries. The national recovery rate now is 87.72.

“The recovery rate, which was nearly 98 per cent in March and over 97 even last month, had fallen to almost 84 as the second wave peaked. Over the past three weeks, however, we managed to see a rise again and we expect to get back into the 90s before the end of this month,” said the minister.

Of the 159 deaths logged on Friday, 33 were reported from Calcutta and 47 from North 24-Parganas, the two worst-affected districts.

While Calcutta logged 3,560 infections, North 24-Parganas reported 4,240.

Bengal is now 13th on the list of states with the highest recovery rates.

The total number of deaths from Covid in the state is 14,054 now, while the mortality rate is 1.14 per cent. The national rate is now 1.12.

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