The city witnessed a marginal drop in daily Covid cases on Thursday, with 789 new infections and 10 fatalities being reported in the last 24 hours. With this, the total count stands at 7,24,113, while the death rate is at 15,348.
Meanwhile, the doubling rate for the last 10 days is hovering between 734 and 727, while the weekly growth rate is around 0.09%.
There has also been a marginal drop in cases across the state, with 9,844 new infections and 197 deaths being reported in the last 24 hours.
With this, tally stands at 60,07,431, with 1,19,859 fatalities. Moreover, the fatality rate has touched 2%.
Health experts and state health department officials said the decline is a positive sign for the state. However, it will take three weeks more for some “normalcy” to return.
Dr. Subhash Salunkhe, former director general of health services and advisor to the state on Covid-19, said that while the state’s positivity rate is reducing, some districts are still reporting more cases.
“Some districts like Mumbai, Thane and Pune are showing a sharp decline in positivity rate, but there are many districts that are not showing a downward trend yet,” he said.
Dr. Pradeep Awate, who heads the epidemiology cell of the state public health department, said that the positivity rate has been declining ‘quickly’ in the state. “We prefer to check the positivity rate for over a week, as the daily rate could be affected by low number of testing that has taken place over the weekend. However, the positivity rate in the state is dropping rapidly. From 25.2% a month ago, we are down to 14% this week,” he said. He expects the steep decline to continue.
“We are likely to drop to 8% in a week’s time and to the magical number of 5% by the end of the month,” he added.