Pune, Pimpri ban entry of people from four villages

Curbs on movement of essential services staff from Haveli taluk to check spread of novel coronavirus

In a bid to prevent transmission of novel coronavirus to Pune’s rural parts, the district administration has prohibited the movement of people, including those engaged in essential services, from four villages in Haveli taluk into Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.

The directive banning movement of individuals for a week (June 6 to June 12) from Narhe, Wagholi, Manjari Budruk and Kadam Wakwasti, was issued on Friday.

Ayush Prasad, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Pune zilla parishad, said, “We recommended shutting down all movement from Haveli to Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad a week back.

Haveli was a notable virus ‘hotspot’ with a case tally of 102, of whom 40 were active. While several people have since been discharged and the numbers dropped considerably, we are keen on preventing any ‘horizontal spread’ from the city to rural parts.”

“An estimated two lakh people — nurses, police constables, police sub-inspectors, cleaners, vegetable vendors — commute to Pune. While they themselves can catch the infection from Pune city, there is the double risk of them spreading the virus in their localities as they live in densely-populated areas which also have a number of slum clusters,” Mr. Prasad told The Hindu .

The purpose of the prohibitory order, he added, was two-fold — to get people tested in Haveli, while giving time for the situation within Pune city to improve.

“Our survey teams in Haveli have faced a problem in getting more people tested as they would leave their homes early morning for work in Pune city. While increasing swab testing facilities here, we have also set up a 300-bed dedicated COVID-19 care centre (CCC) exclusively for these villages,” Mr. Prasad said.

Fresh cases

Meanwhile, fresh cases and fatalities continued to be reported across Pune district with nearly 200 new cases reported on Friday. The death toll in the district rose to 393, with at least 10 fatalities since late Thursday.

Pune Divisional Commissioner Dr. Deepak Mhaisekar said the number of cases in the district had risen to 8,916, of whom 3,111 were active. As many as 5,412 people had been discharged.

Dr. Mhaisekar said that along with Pune’s fatalities, the total death toll in Pune division — which includes Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur and Solapur districts — has now risen to 524.

“As many as 6,486 people — more than 60 % of cases reported in these districts — have been discharged,” said Dr. Mhaisekar.

He informed that Solapur reported three new deaths since Thursday evening to take its death count to 97 while the district’s total case tally had gone up to 1144.

“Of Solapur’s total cases, 571 are active while 476 have been discharged. 19 new cases were reported from Satara to take the district’s total tally to 597 of whom 322 are active and 251 have been discharged,” Dr. Mhaisekar said.

Kolhapur district reported only eight new cases in the last 24 hours as its tally reached 653, with as many as 378 active cases and 269 discharged. The district has reported six deaths thus far.