Mumbai saw a sharp 30 per cent drop in fresh Covid cases on Monday as the daily tally in the city fell to 13,468 from 19,474 on Sunday. It reported a 23 per cent drop in the test positivity rate on Monday, compared to 28.5 per cent on Sunday, showing early signs of a plateau. This is the third consecutive day that Mumbai has seen a decline in the total cases.
This trend was observed across the state as Maharashtra also recorded a substantial drop in cases, which recorded only 33,470 fresh cases on Monday. The state had registered 44,388 new cases on Sunday. While some experts are hopeful that the low numbers reflect a possible plateau of cases in the city, another section believes that the low numbers are due to the “Sunday effect” when tests are less and RT-PCR reports Arrives after 24 hours.
There has been a steady decline in cases in Mumbai since January 7. On January 7, the city reported 20,971 cases per day which came down to 20,318 on January 8. The next day, it fell further to 19,474. While on Monday it fell sharply registering a 30 per cent drop in 13,648 cases.
The large drop in fresh Covid cases on Monday also coincides with the fall in testing numbers as compared to the previous days. On January 7, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) conducted 72,442 tests, recording a test positivity rate (TPR) of 29 per cent. On January 8, a total of 71,019 tests were conducted with a TPR of 28.6 per cent. The tests further fell to 68,249 on January 9 and recorded a TPR of 28.5 per cent. On January 10, there was a 13 per cent drop in testing with only 59,242 tests. It registered a TPR of 23 per cent.
talking to Indian ExpressDr Pradeep Vyas, Additional Chief Secretary, attributed this drop in numbers to the “Sunday effect”.
State Surveillance Officer Dr Pradeep Awate said that since a large number of population has already been affected, the proportion of population vulnerable to infection has come down. omicron The variant has a high transmission rate which has increased the positivity rate to around 30 per cent. “As seen in South Africa, the positivity rate rose to 32-34 per cent, and then suddenly fell. Even a virus has its limits. So, these latest hits suggest that the peak is over, but nothing concrete can be said until we have the data for the next one week,” he said.
BMC additional commissioner Suresh Kakani said that in view of the sporadic behavior of the current edition, it would be challenging to confirm the plateau of the third wave. “But there is consistency in matters. It may be in the decline phase. But we will have to wait till the end of this week to confirm.”
Directorate of Health Services, Dr Satish Pawar said that many people are using antigen kits for testing at home, which is not reporting many cases.
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