Mumbai's COVID-19 test positivity rate crosses 15% twice this week

The COVID-19 test positivity rate (TPR) in Mumbai jumped over 15% twice in the current week, civic officials said on Friday, as the metropolis battles a fresh surge in cases after the third wave of the pandemic waned earlier this year.

They said TPR jumped to 15.58% on June 14, when 1,724 people tested positive for coronavirus out of 11,065 tests conducted that day and then again on June 16 the rate shot up to 15.11% when 2,366 new patients were detected on the back of 15,656 tests in a span of 24 hours.

TPR is the proportion of positive cases out of the total tests conducted and it has witnessed a steady rise in the financial capital since the last one month.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has ramped up the number of daily tests since the first week of June after the city witnessed a spike in fresh cases.

Since June 7, Mumbai has been witnessing daily cases in four digits with the fresh count crossing the 2,000-mark on a few days. Consequently, the number of tests since then has also gone above 15,000 per day barring a couple of days.

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