More than 120 new COVID-19 cases were reported across Pune district as its total case tally breached the 10,000-mark on Wednesday to touch 10,081. The death toll currently stands at 442.
Authorities said 122 new cases had been reported till Wednesday evening. Of the total cases though, only 3,259 were active. With 6,380 people being discharged till date, district’s recovery rate is 62.93%.
Despite the continual surge, Pune District Collector Naval Kishore Ram said the situation was under control and that no alarming spike had occurred despite several areas being lashed by Cyclone Nisarga.
“Yesterday, we tested over 2,500 samples, of which only 220 returned positive. So, our hit ratio or the samples tested to positive cases, has come down to 10% from 15-16% a week ago,” Mr. Ram told The Hindu .
He said intensive screening drives were being carried out in new ‘containment zones’ like Wadarwadi in Shivajinagar, while a number of previously infected clusters within Pune city like Kasba-Vishrambaugwada were showing distinct signs of the curve flattening.
Mr. Ram also said he had instructed deputy collectors and incident commanders (of Pune’s Cantonment areas) to desist from declaring areas as ‘containment zones’ if very few cases were found there. “It has been observed that authorities at times tend to designate an entire area as a containment zone even if only a few cases are found there. This severely hampers functioning of industry and business in such areas,” Mr. Ram said.
Division toll is 609
Meanwhile, the total death toll in Pune division has now risen to 609.
The division’s total case tally has reached 13,028. But only 4,221 of these were active cases, said Pune Divisional Commissioner Deepak Mhaisekar.
After Pune, Solapur has the highest death toll, reporting four new fatalities on Wednesday to take its death count to 125. The district also reported a sharp spike of 107 new cases, taking its tally to 1,410. However, the number of active cases has reduced to 493 with 792 people being discharged.
Satara district reported 20 new cases, taking its tally to 669, of which 273 were active cases while 368 had been discharged. Sangli and Kolhapur fortunately reported negligible surges of four and five cases respectively.
“As many as 8,198 persons in these five districts have been discharged while 250 active patients are critical,” Dr. Mhaisekar said.
Sangli’s case tally stands at 176 of whom 73 are active and 97 have been discharged. Kolhapur’s tally stands at 692. The district’s active cases have reduced significantly to 156.
Meanwhile, Aurangabad district, a major virus hotbed, saw an overnight spike in 114 new cases as its total tally rose to 2,264. The district has reported 116 deaths so far. Authorities said that of the total case tally, only 865 were active while 1,283 had been discharged.
