The number of COVID-19 cases in Mumbai declined for the fourth consecutive day, with the city recording 11,647 infections on Tuesday. The positivity rate, which indicates the number of positive cases per 100 tests conducted, also reached a seven-day low of 18.7%.
The initial data from the city, which recorded more than 1.75 lakh cases in the past 40 days, indicates a possible early flattening of the case curve.
Data from Delhi and Chennai too hinted at a possible slow down of the spread of infections. In Delhi, 21,529 cases were recorded on Tuesday. While the positivity rate rose slightly above 25%, the pace of increase in cases has slowed down. A similar trend was recorded in Chennai too on Tuesday.
However, the national level numbers continued to rise, recording 1,85,189 cases on Tuesday. This is India’s highest-single day rise in infections in the third and ongoing wave. With this, the number of active cases crossed the nine-lakh mark.
According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the bed occupancy in Mumbai dropped to 19.9% on Tuesday compared to 21.0% on Monday.
On January 7, Mumbai had recorded 20,971 cases, the highest single-day rise during the present wave. Since then, the numbers have been declining. However, sources within the civic body said the downward trend in cases cannot be seen as the plateauing of the case curve and that no conclusions can be reached at this point in time. The data that emerges over the next week may reveal the trend.
Odisha on Tuesday recorded one of the sharpest spikes in COVID-19 cases when 7,071 new cases were reported in the past 24 hours. The growth rate in new cases was by 46%, compared to the previous day.
Health experts cautioned the State about the rising test positivity rate (TPR) which has crossed 10%. The situation is precarious in Sundargarh and Khordha district where the TPR was found to be 22.83% and 17.09% respectively.
Telangana reported 1,920 new cases on Tuesday when 83,157 samples were tested in the past 24 hours. For the third consecutive day, the new cases reported remained below the 2,000 mark. Two new deaths were reported on Tuesday.
Karnataka on Tuesday reported 14,473 new cases with Bengaluru Urban alone accounting for 10,800 cases. The test positivity rate touched 7.7%. As many as 1,40,452 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours,
Andhra Pradesh has again reported a spike in infections with 1,831 fresh cases in the 24 hours ending Tuesday morning. It was the highest single-day tally in the past five months (152 days). The number of active cases jumped to 7,195, the highest caseload in the State in the past three months.
The case graph of Kerala rose steeply with 9,066 persons testing positive in the past 24 hours. The total number of samples tested was 63,898.
The growth rate of new cases was 100% in the week from January 4-10, in comparison to the previous week, resulting in 18,149 new cases during this period. The number of active patients went up by 45% while hospitalisations went up by only 2 % during this period
With the increase in new cases, the State’s active case pool has risen to 44,441, of whom 2,887 persons are being treated in hospitals.
Assam had 2,837 new cases of COVID-19 when 49,840 samples were tested on Tuesday. The test positivity rate was 5.69%, up from 4.49% on January 10. Two new COVID-related deaths were also reported on the day. Kamrup (Metro) district, mostly comprising Guwahati, reported the highest number of new cases on Tuesday at 870.
