The surge in COVID-19 cases across Pune district continued, with over 500 new cases being reported till Sunday evening. The district’s cumulative case tally surged to 15,511, said authorities.
The district reported 504 fresh cases since Saturday evening, while its total death toll has risen to 584.
Pune Divisional Commissioner Deepak Mhaisekar said only 5,670 cases out of the total tally were active and 9,257 persons had been discharged across the district till now.
The current recovery rate stood at 59.83% — a reduction from the 62% figure of the past few days.
The latest spike in the district and in Pune city is in keeping with a trend in high case surges since the past week, with the district witnessing an average daily surge of 400 cases.
On Saturday, Pune district had reported its highest case surge till date with a whopping spike of 823 new COVID-19 cases.
Spurt in PCMC
Of these, 403 cases had been reported within Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) limits. More worryingly, 381 cases were reported in Pimpri-Chinchwad. Until a month ago, the active case count under the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) was less than 100 with barely a few containment zones.
Presently, there more than 120 ‘containment zones’ in the PCMC area. With the contagion spreading rapidly in slum clusters, the number of active cases in the township has exceeded 650, while its total case tally stands at 1,711 with 42 deaths.
Meanwhile, along with Pune’s total fatalities, the total death toll in Pune division — which includes the districts of Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur and Solapur along with Pune — has now risen to 811.
The division’s total case tally is inching towards the 20,000 mark, currently standing at 19,408.
“Of these, 6,628 are active cases while 11,969 people in these five districts have been discharged till now,” Dr. Mhaisekar said.
342 people critical
A total of 342 people in the division are critical, of whom 323 are from Pune district, which saw its ‘critical’ patient numbers increase by over 40 in the past two days.
After Pune, Solapur district reported the second-highest surge of 64 new cases, taking the district’s total case tally rise to 2,069. However, authorities said that the active case number had come down to 656 with as many as 1,241 persons being discharged thus far. Solapur’s death toll has risen to 172.
“Satara has reported 18 new cases to take the district’s total tally to 818 of which only 155 were active with 624 recoveries thus far,” Dr. Mhaisekar said.
Sangli and Kolhapur districts reported low surges of five and three new cases respectively. Sangli’s total case tally stands at 276 of which 97 are active ones, while Kolhapur’s total case tally stands at 734 of which merely 50 are active with 676 recoveries.
Meanwhile, Aurangabad district in Marathwada, too, reported a sharp overnight spike of 137 new cases as its total case tally reached 3,497. The district has reported nearly 300 active cases in the past 48 hours.
Officials said of the total cases, 1,470 were active while 1,840 persons had recovered. A total 187 persons have succumbed in the district, a hotbed of the virus.
