Daily Covid-19 cases drop below 50; positivity rate 3%

Active cases in TMC currently below 600, down from 800 in July first half; more than 90% of beds in city remaining vacant

THANE: The number of active Covid cases in Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC), which was more than 800 till July 15, is now below 600 and in the range of 550-580.

Apart from this, the daily cases too are below 50 while the weekly growth rate is around 0.06% and the positivity rate is 3%. As on date, more than 90% of the beds in the city are vacant including 95% oxygen beds, 92% ventilators and 89% ICU. With the state government planning to relax most curbs, these figures look encouraging for the city.

This is much more than the 20% availability of beds in midApril when the cases were at the peak.

Until almost two months back, Thane city had more than 2,000 active cases and TMC had started making preparations for the probable third wave as well.

“As of now, we have 1,500 beds for isolation and are not increasing the number as the government has allowed home isolation. In case there is any policy change in that, we have the infrastructure to increase the arrangements,” said a senior TMC officer.

Last year, mid-July was the start of the peak of positive cases at 400 to 417 cases on a daily basis. It came down to 200 to 250 daily cases only after a month.

In April this year, the number of positive cases witnessed in the city was around 1,600 daily and a month later, it was around 120. Now, TMC has anywhere between 40 to 65 daily positive cases. The lockdown followed by the strict restrictions, call centre facilities and easy access to medical help have helped in lowering the number of positive cases, claimed civic officials.

“We are testing around 3,500 every day. We are currently doing a positive rate analysis. Only if a spike in the positivity rate, which is around 3% now, is observed shall we increase the number of testing as well. For comparison, we need to have the same number of testing and when in similar scenarios as well there is a spike in positivity rate, we can say that the virus is spreading again. With no such indication, we are not increasing the testing,” said Dr Vipin Sharma, commissioner, Thane Municipal Corporation.

Moreover, the vaccination facilities across the city have increased. “We have managed to vaccinate more than 7.3 lakh beneficiaries. From among these, more than 2 lakh among the 18 to 44 years age group have received the first dose of vaccination. Overall, TMC has vaccinated 4.8 lakh beneficiaries and private centres have vaccinated 2.4 lakh beneficiaries till now,” said Khushboo Tawri, medical officer, TMC.