Pune recoveries go up but vaccination issues, post-Covid complications remain

Most deaths in Pune were reported among the 61-70 years age group and only 6% of this age group have received both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.

Pune, which is one of the worst covid-affected regions in the country, recorded more than 10,000 cases on Wednesday. The city currently has more than 120,000 active cases and the death toll went up to 8,945 with 35 fresh fatalities. Pune city reported 5,538 new Covid-19 cases while Pune rural reported 2,998 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday.

Workers in PPE kits take dead body out of ambulance of Covid-19 victim for cremation at Yerwada crematorium in Pune. (Pratham Gokhale/Hindustan Times)

Most deaths in Pune were reported among the 61-70 years age group and only 6% of this age group have received both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine. Pune has a population of more than 1 million people in this age group and only 64,000 have received both doses of the vaccine while at least 640,000 have received the first dose, as per the data from the district information office. Pune vaccinated 58,900 people on Wednesday, out of which most beneficiaries belonged to Pune rural. Pune recorded more than 620,000 recoveries with more than 11,000 recoveries.

The hospital infrastructure in Pune remained stressed as small hospitals stopped taking new patients and advised relatives of patients to look for admission in multi-speciality hospitals as they struggled to accommodate Covid-19 patients.

Smaller hospitals were vital in the fight against Covid-19 in the district but due to lack of oxygen, they are forced to refer patients to large multispeciality hospitals. “In initial days, smaller hospitals managed to provide support to bigger hospitals with oxygen, but now it is not possible. In multi-speciality hospitals they have two options - either they have their own oxygen plant or have cylinders. This is not the case with small hospitals,” Dr Sanjay Patil, chairman, Pune Hospital Board of India told HT.

Several recovered patients in Pune reported getting infected by Mucormycosis which is a rare and serious fungal infection coupled with a high mortality rate. Every hospital in Pune is reporting 10 cases every month, according to a report by HT. “There is a high mortality rate while treating Mucormycosis, but surgery is the only option. If surgery is not performed then the infection is likely to spread to the brain,” Dr Sudhir Halikar, head of department, ENT, at Noble Hospital told HT.