West Bengal: Test positivity rate falls below 8%

According to the government, 2,441 people are still in government quarantine and 77,340 in home isolation. (Representational)

The Covid-19 case count in West Bengal rose to 2,44,240 on Saturday as 3,181 new infections were recorded, while 56 deaths pushed up the toll to 4,721.

This came on a day the state’s test positivity rate dropped below 8 per cent for the first time since August 1. At the time the state was testing about 20,000 samples a day while at present is double that figure. According to Saturday’s health bulletin, 43,285 tests were conducted in 24 hours.

Though the state has recorded over 3,000 cases a day since September 5, the discharge rate has been rising. On Saturday, it was up to 87.61 per cent following the recovery of 2,955 patients. The active caseload, which had dropped to almost 23,000 a few weeks ago, reached 25,544.

Almost 60 per cent of the latest cases, and 34 deaths were recorded in the pandemic epicentre in South Bengal comprising Kolkata, its three adjoining districts, and Hooghly.

Though the active caseloads in the two Medinipur districts continued to drop, with the number of patients in Purba Medinipur declining to 1,007, the toll kept climbing as they recorded six deaths. This week these two districts have already recorded 37 deaths, overtaking last week’s toll of 36. Their overall case fatality rate is 1.23 per cent, while this week it has been 2.48 per cent. The recovery rate has also increased over 4.5 percentage points to 87.83 per cent.

In North Bengal, Malda continued to be on the mend as active cases fell to 468, while in Darjeeling it dropped to 725. Of the eight districts in the region, five reported a drop in their active cases. According to the government, 2,441 people are still in government quarantine and 77,340 in home isolation.

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