E-Paper
Impact of curbs? Pune district’s positivity rate drops
On Sunday, the positivity rate stood at 28.39%, with the district reporting 12,377 cases and the total samples tested were at 43,593
From 41% on April 4 the Pune district’s positivity rate dropped to 23% as on April 10, a week after stricter curbs were imposed in Pune to contain the spread of virus.
On Sunday, the positivity rate stood at 28.39%, with the district reporting 12,377 cases and the total samples tested were at 43,593.
Since mid-February, Covid cases have been on the rise with the positivity rate also going up. However, since the past few days the positivity rate has seen coming down in the district. This could also be a result of the mini-lockdown announced in Pune on April 3, forcing people to stay indoors after 6 pm, while shutting down most shops expect those engaged in essential services.
The state government has now almost made up its mind to impose a complete lockdown to break the chain of the virus across Maharashtra, including Pune, which has been the worst affected.
Experts, however, believe that to find any glimmer of hope the positivity rate has to go further below and maintain a plateau.
Dr Subhash Salunkhe, Covid-19 advisor to the Maharashtra government said, “It is difficult to conclude based on this. These are just numbers as of now as we have had the positivity rate fall down to below 10%. Right now the priority is to manage beds, drugs and oxygen for Covid-19 patients. The curve needs to become a plateau. Whether or not the curfew has been effective is too premature to say now.”
Nationally, Pune’s share of daily caseload has also dropped with the district reporting less than 10,000 positive cases for the past two days. India on Saturday reported 1,52,879 cases.
Earlier this month, Pune district was accounting around 12 per cent of the cases registered nationally.
Ajit Pawar, deputy chief minister said, “This wave is stronger than the first wave. Pune’s positivity rate is also going down which is now about 25-30%. Earlier while Akola and Amravati also reported the highest positivity rate which was about 50% during the peak, it has now gone down to 7%. We hope to see the decline in Pune too.”
As cases continued to rise the number of tests to detect Covid also went up from within a week’s time from 28,000 on April 5 to 41,000 as of April 10.
As the number of tests increased the positivity rate also dipped this week. In the week between March 25 and 31, the positivity rate for the district was 26.7% and for the week between April 1-7, it went further up to 31.4%. Positivity rate is the total number of cases tested positive for Covid-19 against the total tests done.
However the following week, between April 5 and April 10, the positivity rate saw a fall to 23.79%. The highest positivity rate was 41.2% which was on April 4. Positivity rate reflects the spread of the infection and the number of positives reported for every 100 tests.
