How Amravati controlled Covid surge

Amravati district in Vidarbha was the first in the state to witness a surge in Covid-19 cases in the second wave

Amravati district in Vidarbha was the first in the state to witness a surge in Covid-19 cases in the second wave. The sudden spike in cases in the second week of February in the district swung the entire state machinery into action, resulting in the imposition of a lockdown and more testing and tracing. The measures helped the machinery bring down the numbers in just four weeks and also set a model, ‘Amravati pattern’, which became a reference point while imposing the stricter curbs, which came into effect on Wednesday night.

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From less than 100 cases daily till January-end, Amravati reported its highest single-day spike of 1,067 cases in the third week of February. The number was rising rapidly in most urbanised pockets of Achalpur and Warud, straining the health infrastructure to a great extent. While cases were rising in other parts of the state steadily, the cases in Amravati were spiralling at a rapid pace. “We were worried as the health machinery was overwhelmed. We tried the weekend curfew, but it did not work, forcing us to go for the complete lockdown for two weeks until March 8. While imposing a lockdown, we also ensured tracing and testing was ramped up multi-fold. It helped us bring down the cases to 292 on March 9 and 241 on April 5. The positivity rate too was brought down to about 10% by then,” said women and child welfare minister and district’s guardian minister Yashomati Thakur. “We planned the lockdown as well as unlocking in a phased manner. Today, Amravati helps other districts like Buldhana and Nagpur and even other spots like Chhindwara in MP to treat critical patients in need of beds with oxygen and ventilators,” Thakur said.

The district administration had identified the pockets with a high number of cases. “We have two huge markets, bordering Achalpur and Warud, with high mobility from Nagpur and even Madhya Pradesh. Most of the cases were from these areas. The positivity rate had gone up to 35%-40%. High-risk contacts were traced, taking the ratio to 19 people per infection and tests were doubled to 5,000 a day. The positive patients were sent to institutional quarantine, while home quarantine was allowed only after taking a ₹25,000 bond to avoid violation. This helped us in reducing the numbers in just two weeks,” said district health officer Dr Dilip Ranmale.

“The number of cases in Amravati has reached the level it was two months ago. The number of cases in the state is expected to start reducing by April-end, two months after the rise began,” said Dr Avinash Supe, head of the state-appointed death audit committee.