Bengal on Wednesday, for the ninth consecutive day after Durga Puja, logged a drop in its total active Covid-19 cases, helped by a below-4,000 rise in new infections.

The state reported 3,987 new cases, 55 deaths — 12 from Calcutta — and 4,129 recoveries. The record for daily recoveries was reset for the 15th time in 16 days, helping Bengal re-enter the list of top 10 states with the most recoveries, at eighth spot.

The state’s total Covid-19 cases crossed 3.89 lakh, including over 3.46 lakh recoveries and 7,068 deaths. Bengal’s recovery rate is 88.88 per cent, while the national rate is 92.08 per cent. Its mortality rate is 1.81 per cent, behind the national rate of 1.48 per cent.

In nine days since the end of Puja, Bengal reported 36,176 recoveries, which outweighed the 35,754 new cases detected. The total active cases dropped from 37,190 to 36,246.

Though Bengal has over 6.77 per cent of India’s total active cases, it dropped

from fourth to fifth on the list of states with most active cases, swapping places with Delhi.

“Wednesday was Day 10 for someone who got infected on

Vijaya Dashami,” said a minister, crediting the high court’s intervention to curb crowds during festive days for preventing the outbreak from worsening. It is between days six and 10 of infection that most cases get detected.

“With these figures that we have been getting, from around Lakshmi Puja, one can start concluding that Calcutta High Court’s intervention (to keep unbridled revelry from worsening the outbreak into a full-fledged public health emergency) was quite effective,” said the minister.

The state government attributed 5,935, or 84 per cent, to co-morbidities.

With 45,213 tests on Wednesday, Bengal went past the 47 lakh milestone in testing, with over 47.33 lakh tests, at 52,595 tests per million people. The positive confirmation rate is 8.23 per cent now.

The state reported 33.04 per cent occupancy in the 12,966 beds earmarked for Covid-19 in the 96 dedicated hospitals for the pandemic, besides over 4.1 lakh telemedicine consultations so far this pandemic.