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A week since announcing the lockdown and stricter curbs, West Bengal reported a substantial drop in fresh Covid cases.
New infections fell below the 19,000-mark to 18,863. Deaths continue to remain at a high 154.
The drop in fresh infections came as two of worst hit districts - North 24 Parganas and Kolkata (the state capital) - reported a major drop in numbers.
Kolkata reported 3,280 new infections, its lowest in recent times, while North 24 Parganas, the state's Covid epicentre reported 3,876 fresh cases against a daily average of 4,000-4,200.
The two districts account for over 50 per cent of the deaths reported in the state, as per the bulletin reported by the state health department.
In Kolkata, 41 persons succumbed to the virus on a 24 hour basis, while 43 deaths were reported in North 24 Parganas.
On the worrying part, numbers in other districts like Howrah, Hooghly, South 24 Parganas, Nadia, Paschim Medinipur and Purba Medinipur remain on the higher side.
Most of these districts continue to add anywhere between 850 and 1300 cases per day, with the infection graph either being constant or moving upwards in some places on a 24-hr basis.
Test positivity ratio
The state's test positivity ratio, however, shot up to around 27 per cent. This was caused by a sudden slump in daily testing.
From a record high of over 77,000, daily testing has again fallen to around 70,000.
The positivity rate had at one point shot up to nearly 33 per cent; thereby forcing the state to impose stricter curbs.
Active cases in the state reduced by around 500, to 1,31,688; as recoveries stood at over 19,000 on Saturday.
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