E-Paper
In 10 days, Pune’s Covid case doubling rate goes from 15 days to 7 days
The rate is higher than the national rate of 10.8 days or Maharashtra’s 9.1 days, as per data released by the state department on May 12.
According to the Maharashtra public health department, the doubling rate of Covid-19 (coronavirus) positive cases in Pune district has reduced from 15.4 days on May 1 to 7.4 days on May 10.
The rate is higher than the national rate of 10.8 days or Maharashtra’s 9.1 days, as per data released by the state department on May 12.
The report also points out that Pune district needs to provide better protection for the elderly population as it is above the 11 per cent state average.
The department’s report prepared after analysis of data from the district health office states that the cases will multiply every week as per the trend. From between May 1 and May 10, the daily growth rate of the number of Covid-19 positive cases has been about 8 per cent which is higher than Mumbai’s daily growth rate during this period which was 6 per cent, according to the report.
Officials say that the reported rise in the number of cases could be attributed to the increase in the testing of residents. The city’s testing capacity has gone up from 1,000 earlier to now close to 2000 with the to district administration urging laboratories, both private and government, to increase their testing capacity and working hours.
As per the report, Pune conducted 38,000 tests which is 3,346 tests per million population of the city and it is higher than the Maharashtra average of 1,915 tests per million population.
The testing trend for the red zone in Pune district indicates that there has been a growth of 44 per cent in the weekly tests.
The case fatality rate (CFR) is the proportion of deaths from a certain disease compared to the total number of people diagnosed with the ailment for a certain period of time. According to the data analysis by the state public health department, the CFR for the district has improved to 5.8 per cent as of May 10 from 7.5 per cent as of May 1. The study also states that the CFR for the vulnerable groups, those above the age group of 50, has also improved from 20.1 per cent as of May 1 to 16.0 per cent as of May 10.
The report states that Pune along with Nashik, Aurangabad, Solapur, Akola, Jalgaon and Dhule need better protection for the elderly as the CFR rate for the vulnerable population is above 11 per cent state average. In case of the non-vulnerable population too, those below 50 years of age, Pune’s CFR is higher than 1.5% along with Palghar, Akola, Jalgaon and Dhule districts.
Shekhar Gaikwad, Pune municipal commissioner, said that the data could be different from the real time figures recorded by the PMC. He said, “There is a likely possibility of data discrepancy since according to the data that we have currently. our doubling rate is 13 days. The data of the dashboard is prepared on the information uploaded on the ICMR website and so it could not be a real picture. Also, another factor could be that we are now testing more people especially those in the red zone. Hence, the number of positive cases reported are likely to increase, but in addition the mortality rate is also going down which is good news.”
