At 1,329 new cases, city sees a slight jump

ON WEDNESDAY, THE TESTING WENT UP TO 22,788. THE DAILY POSITIVITY RATE IS 5.83%

MUMBAI: A day after the city reported less than 1,000 cases the lowest in the past two months, the daily case figure jumped by 38% as the city recorded 1,329 cases on Wednesday, along with 57 deaths compared to 44 deaths reported on Tuesday. However, the silver lining is the daily positivity rate has remained around 5%.

The number of cases on Wednesday increased owing to the increase in the number of testing. On Tuesday, 961 cases were reported out of the 17,920 tests that were conducted in the city meaning a daily positivity rate of 5.36%. On Wednesday, the testing went up to 22,788 of which 1,329 were positive. The daily positivity rate is 5.83%.

According to state health department data, the city’s total case tally is 691,352 followed by a death toll is 14,373. The city’s recovery rate is 93.37% with 645,516 recoveries. The city’s fatality rate is 2.07% and there are 29,445 active cases.

Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner of the BMC said, “We have directed our officials to ramp up testing as they had gone down in the last few days. We have not set any target but have asked officials to ensure proper contact tracing. Though the test has gone down, our daily positivity rate has not increased, which is a good sign.”the city had increased its testing since March 23 owing to the second wave and for one straight month, there were above 40,000 tests being reported in the city. But the number of tests started falling in the last 10 days owing to the positivity rate going down. According to BMC officials, the number of cases is going down as there are very less citizens who are taking up self-testing.

Dr Siddarth Paliwal a citybased physician said, “The number of testing going down due to fewer citizens opting for self-testing is not a good sign. This means citizens are not getting tested on time and are waiting for their condition to get worse. This in a way also leads to an increase in fatality rate to a certain point. Hence, BMC has to ensure the testing number does not go down.”