Kolkata, May 22 (IANS): The Mamata Banerjee government imposed a 'nearly lockdown condition' in the state on May 16 for 15 days and after seven days the restriction imposed in West Bengal have started showing signs of improvement.

Whereas in the beginning of the month the infection rate rose beyond 30 per cent, now it has come down to 25 per cent and the government officials believe it will further reduce in the coming days.

The data released by the state health department on Friday showed that the positivity rate was as low as 25.5 per cent -- the lowest in the last one month.

Among the 77,627 tested on Friday 19,847 were positive with a positivity rate of 25.5 percent.

Similarly on Thursday, of the 70,638 tested in the state 19,0091 were positive -- the rate of positivity being 27 per cent.

On Wednesday also, the positivity rate was 27 per cent when 19,009 patients tested positive from a total of 70,133 people who underwent Covid testing across the state.

Alternately, if the positivity rate among those tested in the beginning of the month were to be analysed, we will find a marked difference.

In the first week of May, the positivity rate was above 30 per cent. A data analysis will make things clear. On May 1 the rate of positivity was as high as 31.6 per cent where 17,512 people were positive among the total 55,267 tests.

Similarly on May 2, those who tested positive were 17,515 from among 56,209 and the positivity rate was 31.1. In the next couple of days, the daily positivity rate was as high as 31.6 and 30.4, respectively.

After the chief minister took oath on May 5, the state government tried to put a leash on the activities of the people without any kind of lockdown but that had no effect on the spread of the infection and so on May 16 the state government imposed lockdown with minimum relaxation to the people to meet their daily requirements.

On May 16 itself ,the rate of positivity was 29.7 per cent where 19,117 people were found positive among the total 64,327 tested. In the next couple of days -- on May 17 and 18 the figures of rate of positivity hovered around 30 per cent not showing mark improvement but for the last three days the rate of positivity is showing a steady decline giving every reason for the state officials to be optimistic.

"If you take a close look, you will find that the number of cases has not declined substantially. It is still hovering around 19,000 but the rate of positivity shows a sharp decline. It is only because the number of tests in the state has gone up significantly.

"When in the beginning of the month we could conduct only around 55,000 tests, on Friday we conducted more than 77,000 tests.

"As we have been able to increase the number of test facilities in the state, we have also been able to reach out to the people with proper treatment and this is giving positive results. The reducing percentage of positive cases in the state is a very positive sign," Director of Health Services Ajay Chakraborty said.