E-Paper
Fewer Covid cases in Pune city during festival compared to previous week
Pune city from September 9 to 20 (during the festival), the district reported over 9,000 new Covid cases while for the same duration prior to the festivities, the number of new cases was higher at over 10,000
PUNE During the 11 days of Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations in Pune city from September 9 to 20, the district reported over 9,000 new Covid cases while for the same duration prior to the festivities, the number of new cases was higher at over 10,000. The positivity rate of the district too fell down during Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations. However, it was found that the number of tests conducted by the administration fell from 3.17 lakh in the week before the festival as compared to 2.78 lakh during the festival.
From September 9 to 20, the district reported a total 9,223 new Covid-19 cases out of the 278,108 Covid-19 tests conducted, taking the positivity rate to 3.31%. Also, 85 deaths were reported in the district by the district health department. However in the week before Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations from August 28 to September 8, the district reported 10,980 new Covid-19 cases out of the 317,435 Covid-19 tests conducted. The positivity rate for this period was 3.4% and 123 deaths were reported by the district health department.
By comparison, the week of Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations and the week after these celebrations in 2020 saw the beginning of the surge in the first wave of Covid-19 which peaked in September. As per figures released by the state health department, the district reported 37,968 new Covid-19 cases during the Ganesh festival between August 22 and September 2, 2020 while 31,110 new Covid-19 cases were reported in the week after the festival between August 10 and 21, 2020. So in 2020, a spike of 6,800 new Covid-19 cases was seen post Ganesh celebrations.
This year, a number of factors contributed to the dip in new Covid-19 cases vis-a-vis last year, including a large number of vaccination drives and availability of the vaccine apart from the decision by major Ganapati mandals to organise only online darshan as opposed to physical aartis and darshan which helped avoid crowding.
While the coming few months are being considered very important in terms of Covid-19 especially since multiple festivals are lined up, experts are of the view that it might be a bit too early to comment if the situation gets better or worse. Dr Subhash Salunkhe, Covid-19 advisor to the state government said, “It is a good sign that the numbers have not increased as much as last year or even that major mandals took the step to ensure online aartis and darshan so that there was no crowding at popular immersion spots and famous mandals. However we could still see crowds at popular places. The incubation period for the virus is about 14 days and so, if in the next 14 days there is a major spurt in the number of Covid-19 cases, we can then say that the situation is better than it was thought of. However we have many festivals lined up and we must not let down our guard until everyone is vaccinated and there are no serious active cases remaining.”
