E-Paper
20 per cent positive rate in Cantonment board areas despite lower testing
PUNE The three Cantonment boards in Pune district - Pune, Khadki and Dehu road - have an average Covid-19 positivity rate of 20.21% for the past 14 days.
PUNE The three Cantonment boards in Pune district - Pune, Khadki and Dehu road - have an average Covid-19 positivity rate of 20.21% for the past 14 days.
Pune district has a positivity rate of an average of 10 per cent in November.
With fewer tests being conducted in Cantonment board areas located in the vicinity of the city, the city also runs the risk of a possible surge in Covid-19 cases.
Even though the Indian Council for Medical Research’s (ICMR) testing guidelines, in anticipation of a second wave, states that there must be at least 140 tests per million population to prevent a re-surge of Covid-19 cases.
As of November 14, the three Cantonment boards, combined, have reported 6,398 Covid-19 cases, of which 5,807 have recovered; 412 are active cases and 179 deaths have been reported.
A total of 18,652 Covid19 tests have been done in all the three Cantonment boards as per a report by the district health office (DHO).
As per the health office, the total number of tests done in all these three Cantonment boards since November 1 are 638, of which 129 fresh Covid-19 cases were reported, putting the positivity rate at 20 per cent.
The data also shows that zero tests were conducted on November 8, a Sunday; and on November 14, Diwali, four Covid-19 samples were collected for testing.
Dr V D Gaikwad, Pune Cantonment board’s resident medical officer, said, “On Sundays, labs are shut and we send our samples only to NIV and Sassoon. Our Covid19 centre at Mahadji Shinde is collecting samples while other hospitals have started non-Covid19 OPD services since this month.”
Cantonment boards also lack tertiary healthcare and none of their dedicated Covid-19 hospitals have a ventilator or ICU beds, which makes the residents dependent on PMC, PCMC or private hospitals for critical cases.
