Bengal on Friday reported 9,154 new Covid-19 infections, including 1,375 from Calcutta.

In 24 hours till 9am on Friday, the state also logged 19,112 recoveries and 35 deaths, resulting in a drop in the total of active cases by 9,993, to 1,34,816.

This was the fifth consecutive day of such a drop in the third wave. Before Monday, the last drop in the total of active cases was registered on December 27 last year.

The positive confirmation rate —the percentage of samples testing positive for the novel coronavirus — improved to 12.58 per cent, from 16.27 of Thursday. On January 10, it had reached an all-time high for the state at 37.32. In the 11 days since, it has improved by over 66 per cent.

The current level of the positive confirmation rate means one out of every eight samples testing positive. On January 10, it was two out of every five. In a pandemic situation, a positive confirmation rate of up to 5 per cent is considered tolerable. At the peak of the devastating second wave last year, the rate had climbed to 33 per cent.

The recovery rate, for the fifth consecutive day, also improved to reach 92.04 per cent, from the 91.49 of Thursday. Till Sunday, it had dropped by nearly eight percentage points after December 28. The national rate is 93.5 now.

On December 28, the last day of relatively normal numbers before the escalation of the third wave in Bengal, the statewide total was 752, including 382 from Calcutta, and the total active caseload was 7,457. In the 24 days since, the state has logged over 3.17 lakh new infections, including more than 1.03 lakh from Calcutta.

Ten of the state’s 23 districts reported zero deaths. Calcutta and North 24-Parganas reported four each, while Howrah reported 11.

The state’s mortality rate is 1.04 per cent now, with that of infected males at 1.22 and of infected females, 0.80.

Bengal has more than 19.49 lakh cases now, since the first was detected in the state in March, 2020. The total includes nearly 17.94 lakh recoveries and 20,265 deaths.