Even as the central team has stated that Maharashtra is at the beginning of a second Covid-19 wave as of mid-March, the district is already reporting double-digit deaths due to the infection for the past one week.
From March 11 to March 18, Pune reported 2,830 new Covid cases and 145 deaths due to the infection which takes the case fatality rate to 0.6 per cent, as per the district health office.
On March 18, as many as 31 deaths were reported, while on March 17 it was 15, 12 deaths were reported on March 16, 15 deaths on March 15, 25 on March 14, 16 deaths on March 13 and March 12 and 15 Covid-related deaths on March 11, according to the district health office.
The case fatality was about 2.4 per cent September 2020, which is being considered the peak of the first wave in the district. However, even though the current case fatality rate may seem low the absolute numbers are rising steadily.
Although the administration has been claiming that most new cases are mild or asymptomatic and so out of the 30,129 active cases, 21,345 are isolated at home.
{{/usCountry}}Although the administration has been claiming that most new cases are mild or asymptomatic and so out of the 30,129 active cases, 21,345 are isolated at home.
{{/usCountry}}Divisional commissioner Sourabh Rao had said in an earlier press conference, “Most new cases coming up are with milder symptoms or are family contacts of the index patient.” However, the surge seen in mid-February is now leading to more cases and in proportion more deaths.
Meanwhile, the data discrepancy in the reports of the state health department and the district health office continues. As of March 18, as per the district health office, Pune district had reported 9,486 deaths due to Covid while on the same date the state health department showed 8,210 deaths. There is a difference of 1,276 deaths in the Pune district as per both reports.
The issue has been repeatedly raised by the local authorities and the state officials too. Dr Pradeep Awate, state surveillance officer said, “We have raised this issue with the local authorities as it is their responsibility to ensure that the national Covid portal is updated with every discharged case and death with details including names for authenticity. However, due to the paucity in staff, the local authorities in Pune have not been able to update the Covid portal.”
“The state health report is prepared on the basis of the information put up on the portal. However, the data is regularly reconciled every 15 days or 30 days and so the updated numbers should come out soon in the state reports as well,” he said.