Mumbai’s test positivity rate drops to 10% but other districts a cause for concern

After hitting its peak around January 10, the daily cases, which shot up to over 20,000, have started coming down gradually. On January 16, out of the 57,534 tests conducted, 7,895 came out positive with 13.7 per cent TPR. On January 17, 5,956 patients were identified with Covid-19 of the 47,574 tests conducted; the TPR was calculated at 12.51 per cent. On January 18, the daily figures surged marginally with 6,149 cases out 47,700 tests, counting 12.8 per cent TPR.

On January 19, Wednesday, with the rise in the daily testing to 60,291, the TPR dropped to 10 per cent with 6,032 cases. This is a sharp decline from January 7 when the TPR was 28.9 percent, the highest in the pandemic.

“We have crossed the peak in Mumbai. It is expected that cases might drop to 1,000-2,000 by January 26,” Iqbal Singh Chahal, commissioner of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), said on Tuesday.

Even as the situation in Mumbai seemed optimistic, the condition in other districts triggered concerns, especially in Pune, Satara, Nashik, Nagpur, Sangli and Aurangabad, which have been recording most of the daily cases in the state now.

On January 18, out of the 1,95,542 tests conducted in state, 39,027 were identified with Covid taking the TPR to 19.96 per cent. On January 19, of the 2,11,448 tests conducted, 43,697 of the samples tested positive for Covid-19 — the TPR stood at 20.6 per cent.

“Generally, the surge starts in cities and then spreads to the neighbouring districts. In many of the districts, especially the ones in the rural part of the state, we are trying to boost up the vaccination among partially and unvaccinated population,” said Dr Pradeep Awate, state surveillance officer.
The Indian Express reported on Tuesday that due to the rising infection rate in rural areas, the seven-day positivity rate in Nandurbar (17 per cent), Latur (18.7 per cent), Sangli (19.8 per cent) and Satara (19.7 per cent) among others has increased to over 15 per cent from 5-7 per cent in the first week of January.

Dr Shashank Joshi, member of the Covid-19 task force, has advised people to not let their guard down “as the Delta variant is still dominant”. “We hope, with this, it will be endemic for us,” he said.

TOTAL CASES IN STATE: 73.25lakh

New cases: 43697

Total deaths: 141934

New deaths: 49

TOTAL CASES IN MUMBAI: 1017346

New cases: 6032

Total deaths: 16488

New deaths: 12

ACTIVE CASES IN STATE: 2,64708

PEOPLE TESTED: 7,25,31,814

People under institutional quarantine: 3,200

People under home quarantine: 23,93,704