Bengal: Covid count tops 3 lakh, recovery rate stagnant

In a sign of the virus’ resurgence after weeks of sustained recovery, the test positivity rate was back to 8 per cent for the first time since September 25. Even before that the positivity rate had been on a downward curve, but over the past week and a half it has been slowly inching back up again.

Almost 60 per cent of the cases and 49 deaths were reported from the South Bengal infection hotspot comprising Kolkata, its three adjoining districts, and Hooghly. While Kolkata leads the active cases list with 6,747 patients, it is followed by North 24 Parganas with 6,544 patients.

Three other districts in the region with a high active caseload — Purba Medinipur, Paschim Medinipur, and Nadia — recorded increases of varying degrees in active cases. All three have active caseloads well over a thousand.

In good signs for North Bengal, Malda’s active cases registered a drop. On Tuesday, it was down to 805 after days of rapid increases. Darjeeling overtook the district to lead the active cases list with 815 patients. Coochbehar’s active caseload, meanwhile, dropped to 752.