COVID-19: At 5 per cent, test positivity in Mumbai lowest since March

BMC chief Iqbal Singh Chahal said positivity rate was promising, but warned Mumbaikars against lowering guard

There appears to be some good news for the city. Though authorities feared that there would be a surge in COVID-19 cases after Diwali, Mumbai has recorded even lesser number of positive cases in the last 10 days, despite an increase in the number of tests.

According to the BMC, Mumbai’s COVID-19 test positivity has fallen down to 5 per cent, which is the lowest, since March 2020. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has been carrying out testing rigorously. Incidentally, out of the 16,394 tests that were done on Friday, only 825 were positive.

However, civic sources revealed that the fear of a second wave is still looming and citizens need to continue to be careful. People are still roaming around without masks. The civic body has collected fines from five lakh citizens till date, and it is also distributing free masks to them.

BMC municipal commissioner, Iqbal Singh Chahal, said, "The COVID-19 test positivity rate for the last 10 days in Mumbai looks promising, but we should not be complacent and lower our guard."

The BMC carried out 8,867 RT-PCR tests and 7,527 Antigen tests in the city on Friday, out of which 684 and 141 came positive, respectively. The BMC has been carrying out free testing at about 244 of its testing centres, and regularly testing the delivery boys, hawkers and waiters to ensure mass checks continued after the festive season.

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