Mumbai Covid-19: Hospitalisations low, but positivity rate exceeds pre-third wave figures

Even though the severity of Covid-19 cases remains mild and very few cases of hospitalisations are reported, the current test positivity rate (TPR) the number of positive cases out of the total tests conducted over the past week exceeds five times that of December 2021, when Omicron started proliferating in the third wave.

Over the last week, 54,164 tests were conducted in Mumbai and 4,732 people were identified with Covid-19 taking the total positivity rate (TPR) to 8.7 per cent.

By comparison, in the period between December 21-27, 2021, which was the beginning of the third wave, 4,263 individuals tested positive out of the 2,45,538 tests conducted registering a TPR of 1.7 per cent.

Public health experts believe that due to low testing, many infected patients might be going unreported. Some say since the TPR is high, if the tests were to increase, there could be a sharp rise in cases across the city.

In the past week, active Covid cases in Mumbai have surged two-fold. Data from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) showed that on May 31, the city had 2,526 active cases, which surged to 5,238 on June 6. 

Despite this, the civic body on average conducted only 7,738 tests during this period. 

On June 5, the TPR reached 11 per cent in Mumbai with 961 new Covid-19 cases identified out of the 8,778 tests. 

On June 6, the TPR dropped slightly to 10 per cent with 676 patients being diagnosed as Covid positive out of 6,897 tests.