Even as Pune district continues to remain the most affected district in the country, with maximum active Covid-19 cases and daily Covid-19 fresh cases, there are 229 villages in the district which have not reported a single Covid-19 case since the pandemic began last year.
The secret has been Covid-appropriate behaviour and a successful quarantine of those travelling to the city for work or trade purposes.
Of the 1,405 villages under the Pune Zilla Parishad, 229 have been able to successfully live a Covid-free life.
These villages have not reported a single Covid-19 positive case since March 2020.
These 229 villages account for a population of 0.6-0.7 million of the 5.2 million rural Pune population.
The villages have successful drives to detect SARI and ILI patients and also have penalised people for not wearing masks.
Ayush Prasad, chief executive officer (CEO) of Pune Zilla Parishad said, “These villages do have people who travel to the city or town area for trade and work purposes. However, the containment measures are so successful in these villages that they have bene able to keep the virus at bay for over a year now. The Covid- appropriate behaviour has been considered as asocial practice and so even though there are no cases, people are penalised for not wearing masks and anyone travelling to the city for any work is quarantined upon their return.”
Prasad added: “In some of these villages while there have been cases in nearby villages, they have remained untouched. We also have 200-odd villages who have reported single digit Covid19 cases. These positives are also of those who were migrants and there was no local transmission in these 200 villages.”
{{/usCountry}}Prasad added: “In some of these villages while there have been cases in nearby villages, they have remained untouched. We also have 200-odd villages who have reported single digit Covid19 cases. These positives are also of those who were migrants and there was no local transmission in these 200 villages.”
{{/usCountry}}Theses 229 gram panchayat’s with no cases are from talukas connected to the city including Haveli, Ambegaon, Bhor, Khed, Mulshi, Maval, Purandar, Shirur, Junnar and Velha among others.