Mumbai While both the city and the state reported a slight dip in fresh infections on Wednesday, the test positivity rate (TPR) took a massive jump and reached 20.26% in the city, the highest since the peak during the third wave.
While the state reported 3,260 cases and three deaths on Wednesday, the city clocked 1,648 and two of the deaths. The high TPR denotes continued low testing in the city.
The two deaths in the city- an 82-year-old male and a 65-year-old female with diabetes, hypertension and heart disease.
The doubling rate remained at 371 days. In the third wave, the highest TPR recorded in Mumbai was 29.9 percent on January 6. At the peak of the second wave, the highest number of single-day infections stood at 11,163.
Dr Gautam Bhansali, the chief coordinator of private hospitals for vaccination and Covid, said, “If a person has symptoms, s/he needs to get tested. It is seen that people are not testing and are taking medicines by themselves. We should not take the virus lightly even if the strain is milder.”
Meanwhile, BJ Medical College, Pune’s genome sequencing report showed six more Covid-recovered patients with BA.5 variant- a subvariant of Omicron.
According to the latest report of BJ Medical College, Pune and National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur, of the six recovered patients, five are from Pune and one from Nagpur.
“Out of these, three are from the age group of 20 to 35 years, while the other three are above 50 years. Except one, all are vaccinated and they recovered well in home isolation. With this, the tally of BA.4 & BA.5 variant cases found in the state goes to 25,” said a state health official.