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Positivity rate down in state for 2nd day
Maharashtra recorded a decline in the daily test positivity rate for the second day in a row, even as the caseload saw a marginal increase with 34,424 new Covid-19 infections on Tuesday
Mumbai: Maharashtra recorded a decline in the daily test positivity rate for the second day in a row, even as the caseload saw a marginal increase with 34,424 new Covid-19 infections on Tuesday compared to 33,470 cases recorded the previous day. By comparison, the number of tests conducted on Tuesday were 210,043 compared to 173,806 tests conducted on Monday.
In effect, the test positivity rate — the number of positive cases per 100 tests conducted — on Tuesday was 16.38%, down by a little over three percentage points from Monday. Tuesday’s TPR is also the lowest in the past six days. Last Thursday, the TPR was as high as 21.27%, when the state recorded 36,265 fresh cases with 170,429 tests conducted.
Mumbai, which accounts for a majority of the cases in the state also saw a decline in fresh cases reported for the fourth consecutive day on Tuesday, with 11,647 Covid-19 cases reported. The state’s case count now stands at 221,477, while Mumbai’s active cases stand at 100,523, down by 3,339 from Monday.
Indeed, in the last five days, cases reported from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) have been declining. On January 7, Mumbai and MMR contributed 81.2% of the state’s total cases. The share dropped to 64.38% on Tuesday. Mumbai alone contributed to 51.24% of the total cases reported in Maharashtra on January 7. On Tuesday, its share was 33.83% of the state’s caseload.
Health department officials however, are circumspect about calling this a dip in the wave for Mumbai and MMR, as this could also be a result of an increased reliance on home test kits, as a result of which the state cannot track the number of positive cases unless the person self reports.
Whether it is a trend or lower reporting due to home test kits is still unclear. However, if one looks at Mumbai’s test positivity rate it is a positive sign as it has dropped from 30% to 18%,” a health department official, who did not wish to be named, said. He said that these are early days in the third wave. “We could see a similar surge in other centres in the coming days.”
Pune (6,161), Nashik (1,414) and Nagpur (806) districts have also been reporting higher numbers.
Health minister Rajesh Tope said that the expert pointed out that the third wave could peak by January end. However, these are estimates, he added. “The third wave has started and it has to be seen when it will peak. In the second wave, the peak was 65,000 [cases in a day] and then it started declining. It is difficult to estimate when this wave will peak, but experts opine that it could peak around January end,” said Tope.
The minister added that the overall situation is better in the state compared to the second wave. He said that the oxygen requirement had not increased, while the hospital bed occupancy also remained low. “Today our oxygen requirement is about 250 tonnes daily. This includes both, Covid and non-Covid. If we segregate, the non-Covid demand, the need for oxygen has not risen a great deal. The bed occupancy has not shot up at a concerning level,” said Tope. He further added, “Out of the active cases, only 2% are on oxygen support and 1% is in ICU in the state. The numbers are not such that would burden the medical infrastructure.”
