Mumbai has conducted 2.12 lakh Covid-19 tests, with positivity of 20.4%

Authorities in Mumbai have conducted 212,000 Covid-19 tests, with a positivity percentage of 20.40%.

The current figure of 20.40% marks a sharp rise from the 11.6% recorded on May 13, and 16.5% on May 21. On May 6, roughly a month ago, the positivity percentage stood at 10%, according to data available with Hindustan Times.

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The positivity percentage is calculated as the number of people testing positive from among the total number of tests.

Ashwini Bhide, additional municipal commissioner in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), tweeted on Thursday night, “Almost 19 private labs have been involved in testing by @mybmc. That is how Mumbai has done 2.12 lakh tests so far which makes it 16,304 tests per million population, highest in India.”

The high percentage of positivity is being attributed to targeted testing and early identification of suspected Covid-19 cases.

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A senior civic officer said, “It indicates that we are targeting the right pool of individuals. This also means we are able to remove them from the community at the right time due to early identification. Our contact tracing efforts have been fruitful.”

As of June 3, BMC has traced a total of 845,000 contacts, of whom 192,000 were high risk contacts. While 352,000 are currently in home quarantine, 27,891 are in BMC’s institutional quarantine facilities.

As of May 13, Mumbai had conducted 127,000 tests, when the number of Covid-19 patients in the city was 14,781. As of May 21, Mumbai had conducted 153,000 tests, and the number of Covid-19 cases in the city was 25,317.