Even after specific orders from the civic chief, the city has failed to increase its volume of COVID-19 tests. On the contrary, testing reduced in the past one week. Busy with the festive season and fearful of losing their jobs, people have refused to come out to get tested, while the opposition is accusing the BMC of only issuing circulars.

Testing had improved in August owing to a large number of people from high-rises going to private labs and the Test Positivity Rate (TPR) reduced to 11.5 per cent. But after this week's decrease, the TPR had increased to 15 per cent.