In an encouraging sign, the COVID-19 test positivity rate in Mumbai dropped to 9.01% on Friday, according to data provided by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
The city started witnessing a downward trend since the tightening of restrictions last week. On Thursday, Mumbai recorded a test positivity rate of 9.94% after 4,328 people tested positive of the 43,525 samples examined. Test positivity rate is defined as the proportion that returns positive among the total samples tested.
“Our positivity rate is in single digits now, with nearly 44,000 tests. Perhaps, Mumbai is the only city in India with a single digit positivity rate with high testing,” BMC Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said on Friday.
Though the latest figures hint at the city heading towards the path of recovery, BMC officials warned that the fight against COVID-19 was still on and urged citizens to continue to follow safety guidelines. “The trend might be encouraging and may push people into believing that we are winning over the virus. Let us not fall into that trap. We are far from winning the battle,” said a senior BMC official.
According to BMC data for the past month, Mumbai had a test positivity rate of 20.85% in the beginning of April. The city recorded its highest test positivity rate of 27.94% on April 3, when 11,573 people had tested positive after 51,313 samples were examined. Since then, the rate has been fluctuating between 15% and 21%.
The data suggested that the test positivity rate started slipping below 20% from April 19.
Last week, On April 23, the rate dipped to 15.65% when 6,193 people tested positive of the 39,584 samples examined. The next week, the rate lingered between 15% and 14%. The rate further dropped to 11.93% on April 28 and to 9.94% the next day.
Highlighting that 85% of the new cases are asymptomatic, Mr. Chahal said the number of vacant beds available in city hospitals increased to 5,725 on Friday afternoon, indicating a drop in fresh admissions.
Aaditya Thackeray, State Environment Minister and Guardian Minister of Mumbai (Suburban), said: “While we are focusing on increasing bed capacity in the city, we urge Mumbaikars to stay indoors and help us bring down the number of cases.”
The BMC official, who is handling one of the civic-run COVID Care Centres in Mumbai, said though the test positivity rate is dipping, vaccinating people as early as possible is the only way to contain the virus. “There is no other option,” he said.
(With PTI inputs)
