Amid COVID-19 restrictions, Mumbai's test positivity rate falls below 10%

In a sign of relief in the country's financial capital Mumbai, which is badly suffering from coronavirus crisis. On Friday, the positivity rate came below 10 percent.

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal gave this information on Friday, stating that the infection rate in Mumbai was 9.94 percent on April 29, when 4,328 people were found infected out of a total of 43,525 samples tested. Test Positivity Rate (TPR) is defined as the comparison of samples found to be infected with the total samples examined.

85% percent of new patients have no symptoms

Chahal said that due to the absence of symptoms in 85 percent of the new cases, the number of empty beds in the city increased to 5,725 after Friday afternoon, indicating a decrease in the number of patients admitted.

Fall in TPR starts from April 19

The TPR of Mumbai was 20.85 percent at the beginning of April, with the highest 27.94 percent TPR recorded on April 3. At that time, out of a total of 51,313 samples tested, 11,573 people were found infected. These figures show that from April 19, the infection rate started falling below 20 percent. Earlier this week, Dr Shashank Joshi, a member of the Covid-19 Task Force of the Government of Maharashtra, said that Mumbai seems to be turning around in this fight against the epidemic.

Meanwhile, amid the surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths in Maharashtra, the state government on Friday extended the ongoing restrictions till May 15.

The restrictions that were imposed to curb the infections were initially in place till May 1.

According to a statement issued by the Chief Secretary of the state, the decision has been taken as Maharashtra continues to be threatened with the spread of COVID-19. It said that it was imperative to continue the emergency measures to prevent and contain the spread of the virus. Curbs imposed on the movement of people and a host of other activities earlier this month were to continue till 7 am on May 1.Essential services have been exempted from the purview of the curbs.