Mumbai: With the decline in Covid-19 cases, the city has also witnessed a drop in the number of citizens under home quarantined. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) data shows that there is a 16% drop from 627,000 persons who were home quarantined on April 10 to 525,000, as of May 07. The city’s daily positivity rate was as low as 7% on Sunday as compared to around 25% in the first week of April.

According to BMC officials, one of the reasons for patients under home quarantine going down is owing to the drop in the number of cases from high-rises, where maximum patients were home quarantined.

As per the BMC data, 789 buildings and 9,785 floors were sealed on April 6, while 617 buildings and 8,658 floors, were reported to be sealed as of May 6.

According to civic body officials, this is one indicator of the cases going down in the city. The high-rises in the city have been contributing over 85% of the daily cases in the second wave that started in the city from around February 10.

A closer look at the data of home quarantine citizens reveals the number of citizens under home isolation had gone as low as around one lakh in February, however, with the second wave the number drastically went up.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, the city reported 2,395 cases followed by 68 deaths, taking the tally to 675,630 and toll to 13,781. The city’s recovery rate is 90.11% with 608,866 recoveries. The city’s mortality rate is 2.03% with 51,165 active cases. The city reported 32,590 tests on Sunday wherein 7.34% were positive.

The city’s former hot spot Dharavi reported 13 cases on Sunday, taking the total to 6,623. There are 755 active cases in Dharavi and 5,540 discharges.

Reacting to the fall of patients under home isolation, Dr Siddarth Paliwal, a city-based physician said, “The number of patients under home isolation does not reveal the number of active Covid-19 cases, but yes, it is an indicator of the intensity of spread. Currently, we have over 525,000 citizens under home isolation whereas our active cases are less than 100,000. Hence, these also include high-risk contacts, those under isolation post-recovery etc.” The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Sunday issued a statement, claiming that allegations of the civic body under-reporting Covid-19 deaths were false. Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday had alleged that the Mumbai civic body was manipulating data on infection rate and the number of deaths. Fadnavis had said that BMC has put the Covid deaths in the non-Covid deaths category to reduce the number of deaths due to Covid.

However, the BMC said, “There have been allegations in the media and social media that a virtual picture is being painted by the BMC regarding the control of Covid infection in the BMC area. The allegations are completely baseless and the municipal administration has categorically denied it.”