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After over two weeks of increasing recoveries, West Bengal on Friday registered its highest single-day increase in Covid-19 cases, recording 542 fresh infections, even as the toll rose by 10 to 616.
This is the first time the state reported more than 500 cases in a day. It pushed the total case count over the 16,000-mark to 16,190. The previous highest single-day jump in cases before this was recorded on June 12, when 476 cases of infection were detected.
Most of the latest infections, 337, were detected in Kolkata, Howrah and North 24 Parganas — the epicentre of the pandemic in the state — while most of the deaths, seven, occurred in the capital city and Howrah. The districts of South 24 Parganas, Hooghly and Darjeeling reported one death each.
Purulia district, meanwhile, inched closer to achieving the distinction of being Covid-19-free as its active caseload dropped to one after the release of two patients. At present, only Jhargram does not have any active case, having reported its last infection on June 14.
According to the health bulletin, in which figures are updated till 9 am, 345 people were released from hospitals in 24 hours, taking the number of recovered patients to 10,535. However, due to the increase in the caseload, the recovery rate fell marginally to 65.07% — the first time since June 8, when the discharge rate was 40.22%.
The active case count increased to 5,039, with about 66% of the caseload in the epicentre.
The health bulletin reported that 9,537 samples were tested in 24 hours, taking the number of specimens examined till date to 4,48,795. The test positivity rate increased to 3.61%.
The government said 30,248 migrant returnees were still in special facilities, while 7,330 people remained in institutional quarantine. According to authorities, 90,771 people are in home isolation, while 463 people are in safe homes.