The doubling rate of Covid-19 cases in the city has been revised to 17.6 days as against the June 19 forecast of 24 days by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).
The city has been reporting a drastic rise in the number of Covid-19 positive cases for one week with the highest number of positive cases within 24 hours reported on Saturday. The city registered 822 fresh positive cases on June 27 taking the progressive positive count in the city to 15,602.
This has led to an increase in the city’s doubling rate and a reduction in the number of days it takes to double the cases. Two weeks ago, Pune’s doubling rate had shown some signs of improvement.
Additional Municipal Commissioner, Rubal Agarwal said, “We had estimated the doubling rate to be around 24 days when we were testing about 2,000 samples per day but now we have increased the test sample from 2,000 to 3,500 and so the number of cases has also gone up drastically. So it is only because of aggressive tracing and testing. If the number of active cases goes up, the doubling rate will also be affected.”
The city reported over 500 cases within 24 hours for at least three times in the past one week which has led to a drastic rise in the number of active cases which has also reduced the doubling rate of the city.
{{/usCountry}}The city reported over 500 cases within 24 hours for at least three times in the past one week which has led to a drastic rise in the number of active cases which has also reduced the doubling rate of the city.
{{/usCountry}}The city’s active cases have gone up from 2,528 as of June 10 to 5,892 on June 27. The proportion of active cases currently stands at 37.7 per cent to progressive positive cases which were 30 per cent as of June 10.
The rise in the number of cases also shot up the graph of active cases which had flattened in the early week of June.
The graph is now moving upwards thereby putting in pressure on the health infrastructure and civic administration.
Dr Sanjay Dabhade from Jan Aarogya Manch, an NGO that works for public health said, “PMC’s poor tracing and testing is now resulting in the spread of the virus and causing more people to be infected. More testing at the right time followed by isolation and quarantine would have resulted in containing the spread of the virus. Also as time passes we are seeing that the fear of the infection is reducing. I was at market yard two days ago when I saw only 30 per cent of people wearing masks. The study by Lancet recommends wearing three-layered masks to contain the spread of the virus. The PMC must continue to create awareness and take strict measures against people not wearing masks in public places.”