Bengal on Sunday reported 512 new Covid-19 infections, including 62 from Calcutta, a three-digit figure for eight consecutive days for the first time since the escalation of the third wave of the pandemic evident in the numbers since December 29 last year.

The state also logged 1,326 recoveries and 27 deaths, including 12 deaths in Calcutta, on Sunday, resulting in a drop in the total of active cases by 841 to 12,643.

This was the 28th consecutive day of such a drop in the third wave, resulting in a drop by over 92 per cent in active cases since January 17.

Before this, the total active caseload in Bengal had risen nearly 22 times from 7,457 on December 28 last year to 1.6 lakh on January 16.

The positive confirmation rate in the state — or percentage of samples testing positive — improved to 1.42 per cent from the 1.65 of Saturday. It means one out of every 70 samples in the state tested positive. On January 10, when the positive confirmation rate in Bengal had peaked to 37.32 per cent, it meant that two out of every five persons tested were positive.

Saturday also completed two weeks or 14 consecutive days in the third wave of the state when the positive confirmation rate was maintained at below 5 per cent in a day.

Covid-19 recovery rate in the state improved for four weeks or 28 consecutive days to reach 98.33 per cent to reach the pre-third wave level of December 28 last year.

Between December 29 and January 16, it had dropped by eight percentage points, before recovering by eight percentage points in these 28 days. The national rate is 97.55 per cent now.

In these 28 days, the state also reported nearly 2.6 lakh recoveries, which outweighed the 1.13 lakh new infections detected.

Eleven of the state’s 23 districts reported zero deaths. The mortality rate is 1.05 per cent now.

Bengal has close to 20.11 lakh cases now, since the first was detected in the state in March, 2020. The total includes more than 19.77 lakh recoveries and 21,017 deaths.