Bengal on Saturday completed two months since Dashami on October 26 of a continuous drop in its total active Covid-19 cases, which fell from 37,190 to 14,108, improving by over 62 per cent.

The total number of active cases now is back to almost where it used to be on July 16, 163 days ago.

On Saturday, the state logged 1,861 recoveries, 1,253 new cases and 33 deaths, including a dozen from the city.

“In these two months, there have been over 2.12 lakh recoveries, compared to 1.92 lakh new cases detected. This long spell that nobody had seen coming has been a total game-changer in our Covid-19 war effort,” said a minister. In these two months, there were 3,023 Covid-19 deaths.

“This (two-month) spell helped us undo nearly six months of damage,” he added.

The state now has over 5.46 lakh Covid-19 cases, including 5.22 lakh recoveries and 9,569 deaths.

The recovery rate has risen for 65 consecutive days, from the 87.44 per cent of October 22, to 95.66. The national rate now is 95.79 per cent.

“We will surpass the national rate in a couple of days. Ending the year with around 97 per cent would be truly remarkable,” said the minister, adding that the two-month spell helped the state achieve – even better – all the year end goals in the fight against the pandemic.

Bengal’s positive confirmation rate is 7.88 per cent now, having improved fairly steadily from the 8.27 of November 20.

However, Bengal’s mortality rate is now 1.75 per cent, lagging behind the national rate of 1.44 per cent. Of the toll, 8,023 deaths or 83.8 per cent were attributed to comorbidities by the state government.

With 30,641 tests on Saturday, the state’s total test count rose to 69.27 lakh, at 76,973 tests per million people.

Bengal reported 13.31 per cent occupancy in 13,588 beds earmarked for Covid-19 in the 102 dedicated hospitals for the pandemic and over 5.49 lakh telemedicine consultations.