Covid: Overall toll past 3,000, but active cases fall in Bengal -The state crosses 1.5 lakh in the total number of cases, of which over 1.21 lakh are recoveries and 3,017 are deaths

Meghdeep Bhattacharyya   |   TT   |   Calcutta   |   28.08.20 :  Bengal’s overall Covid-19 toll crossed 3,000 on Thursday but the state also achieved three significant positives, a 24-hour high in daily Covid-19 testing with 42,474, crossing 17 lakh tests in all and surpassing the 80 per cent recovery rate.
Also, with 3,189 recoveries in 24 hours till 9am on Thursday, which outweighed the 2,997 new infections in the same window, the total number of active cases fell for the fourth consecutive day.
On Sunday, the total number of active cases was 28,069; on Thursday the figure fell to 26,709.
The state crossed 1.5 lakh in the total number of cases, of which over 1.21 lakh are recoveries and 3,017 are deaths. Fifty-three persons died on Thursday.
Bengal took over three-and-a-half months to conduct 1 lakh tests, on May 19. Exactly 100 days later, the state crossed 17 lakh in tests.
A month ago, the state was conducting 17,000 tests a day, at 9,325 tests per million. Now it conducts over 42,000 a day, at 19,073 per million.
“The (state’s) achievements in testing are the brightest of these silver linings in the pandemic cloud. Having begun testing in early February, we were at 8,39,211 tests till a month ago. In these 30 days, we conducted 8,77,396 tests,” said a minister.
Another welcome trend is the dip in active Covid-19 cases in the most high-incidence districts of Bengal.
On Thursday, yet again, the five most high-incidence states of Bengal in terms of the novel coronavirus infection — Calcutta, North and South 24-Parganas, Howrah and Hooghly — collectively recorded a fall of 354 in active cases.
These districts have been logging more recoveries than new cases fairly consistently now since August 9.
“The most high-incidence district of Calcutta had 7,041 active cases on August 9. Now, this number has fallen to 5,311. Today, it reported 770 recoveries and 571 new cases,” said the minister.
Owing to the spike in cases, however, the positive confirmation rate is now 8.78 per cent, which was 7.86 per cent even at the beginning of the month.
Of Bengal’s 53 Covid-related deaths on Thursday, 16 were reported from Calcutta.
Of the 3,017 deaths in total, 2,628 or 87.1 per cent were reported as comorbid by the government. Comorbidities include hypertension, diabetes, cardiac, kidney and pulmonary diseases, tuberculosis and cancer.
The overall mortality rate of Bengal also stayed put at 2 per cent, while the national rate is now 1.82 per cent.
The minister iterated that chief minister Mamata Banerjee wanted priority on lowering the state’s mortality rate.
“There are several measures being put in place to that end in the next few weeks,” he said.
Bengal reported 34.69 per cent occupancy in the 12,045 Covid-19 beds in 87 dedicated hospitals, and 14.74 per cent in the 11,507 beds in 200 safe homes across the state. Telemedicine services have been given to over 1.32 lakh, 4,558 of them in the past 24 hours.