The rapid increase in COVID cases in the city over the past two weeks is yet to push citizens to go for tests. Despite clear instructions by civic chief I S Chahal to ramp up testing, BMC officials managed between 8,000 and 9,000 tests a day last week. As a result, the test positivity rate shot up to 11 per cent on Sunday, which saw 961 new infections.

In February, when daily cases dropped below 700, over 35,000 tests were carried a day. At the peak of the third wave in January, daily tests in Mumbai topped 60,000. Most of the tests are now of air travellers and patients before surgeries.