Active Covid cases in Pune district increase over past week

PUNE The district recorded 1,177 new cases in the last four days (from January 23-27) which has led to a rise in active cases, according to the state health department.

As of January 23, the district reported 11,515 active cases which went up to 12, 692 as of January 27.

Active Covid-19 cases define the number of patients undergoing treatment at the hospital for the infection or are in home isolation.

The district still tops in the state in the number of active cases, followed by Thane (7,561 cases) on the second spot and Mumbai (5,645 cases) on the third spot.

As more news cases are being reported as compared to the number of those being discharged, the number of active cases in Pune city, Pune rural and Pimpri-Chinchwad is showing an upward trend, said officials.

Dr Subhash Salunkhe, chairman, Maharashtra Communicable Diseases Prevention and Control Technical Committee, said, “As commercial and social activities have resumed people are stepping out and so there are more chances of transmission of the Sars-Cov-2 virus which causes the Covid infection.”

“During our last meeting with the deputy chief minister, I had raised this issue that even now we must continue with the surveillance as we did before including regressive contact tracing, isolation of the affected and people must continue to wear masks and practice social distancing,” he said.

“We now see that people have completely let off the guard and continue to behave carelessly. Therefore it was anticipated that the cases would go up. We must remember the examples of other countries like Japan and Russia where the situation is still serious and learn from their situation,” he said.

“There is also a stark difference in the numbers reported in the district report and the state report which also needs to be fixed,” he said.

The district report recorded 4,931 active cases as of January 26 while the state report recorded 12,482 Covid-19 cases. While the district report recorded 9,021 deaths, the state report recorded 7,944 deaths.