As people’s movement increases, Pune sees a slight rise in positivity rate

Administration has been warning about a possible second wave in January or February and the civic body is preparing for early detection and treatment of newer cases

Post Dussehra and upcoming festive season, there has been an increase in the movement of people leading to a slight rise in Covid positivity in the city. Since the past five weeks the city saw a dip in the positivity rate indicating a fall in the number of Covid-19 cases, however, since the past one week from October 30 to November 5, the positivity rate has gone up indicating that more number of people are testing positive.

We are expecting a spike in number of cases given that people are crowding markets and public places, says additional commissioner Rubal Agrawal. (Ravindra Joshi/HT PHOTO)

The number of tests being carried out by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is also going down and the city is also seeing a rise in the virus cases.

As per the data from PMC, the city saw a continuous dip in positivity rate which came to 10.8% as of the week between October 23 and October 29 when over 17,853 tests were conducted of which 1,921 tested positive. In the following week, the civic body conducted 17,011 tests between October 30 and November 5 in which 1,970 tested positive.

Despite the civic body conducting about 700 lesser tests compared to the previous week, 50 more cases were reported which led to a rise in the positivity rate.

The administration has been warning about a possible second wave in January or February and the civic body is preparing for early detection and treatment of newer cases.