The BMC has increased its testing capacity given the concern over the transmission of the new Omicron variant of COVID-19. On Saturday, 219 of the city’s residents were reported COVID-19 positive, after conducting 40,703 tests with a Test Positivity Rate of 0.54 per cent. Meanwhile, four deaths were registered in the city.

The civic body has ramped up testing at crowded public places such as railway stations and markets. The cases dropped below 200 a few days ago, but as the surveillance increased, there is a slight growth in cases. On Friday, the city had reported 186 cases after conducting 36,272 tests with a TPR of 0.51 per cent. The city reported four deaths; all had comorbidities, as per the health department. One patient was between the age of 40 and 60 years, and three were above 60. The doubling rate is now 3,052 days. The city’s recovery rate has remained constant at 97 per cent. The state registered 782 new cases and 14 deaths on Saturday.  The state’s case-fatality rate remained constant at 2.12 per cent.  As per the state report, 358 cases were reported in the MMR region Mumbai.