39% of Pune’s total Covid-19 positives cases reported in last two weeks

The civic body has also started using rapid antigen detection kits since the beginning of the month which has led to increased testing capacity for the civic body

According to Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) data, the city has reported 11,262 Covid-19 positive cases in two weeks (between June 28 and July 11), which amounts to about 39% of the total 28,375 cases (till July 13) recorded since March 9 when the infection was first reported. The rise in numbers has led to the administration reimposing a strict lockdown in the city, starting Tuesday.

Health workers during a door to door screening for coronavirus in a slum near Dandekar bridge in Pune. (Pratham Gokhale/HT Photo)

The civic body has also started using rapid antigen detection kits since the beginning of the month which has led to increased testing capacity for the civic body. Additional commissioner Rubal Agarwal tweeted, “As the number of cases in the past two weeks are rising, the civic body will now be focusing on identification of suspected patients, increase contact tracing and testing and increasing dedicated Covid-19 beds.”

As per PMC data, the highest surge in the number of cases has been recorded in Warje, Karvenagar, Kothurd and Bavdhan, followed by Hadapsar, Mundhwa, Dhankawadi, Sahakarnagar and Kondhwa.

Agarwal said, “The positivity ratio has remained the same. As the number of tests rises, proportionately the number of cases will also rise, but eventually as we start to isolate more people, the chain will break and then, the number of cases will fall drastically. The lockdown period will help us only if we test more and we are doing that. We are also increasing the contact tracing of every positive from 10 to 15 people.”

Sanjay Dabhade, member of Jan Aarogya Manch, said, “The civic body must explain the rationality behind imposing the lockdown. If the PMC is in fact going to increase testing, then, they must also parallelly take care of the increase in the requirement of beds. I get calls daily about patients who need critical care, but are being shifted to casualty ward with oxygen treatment.”

Meanwhile, in a letter to the state government, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has called upon the government to make it mandatory for discharged and cured patients to donate blood for plasma. The letter states, “The Indian Medical Association, Maharashtra state suggests the government of Maharashtra to make it mandatory for all the patients who got cured from the deadly disease, to donate blood for the plasma therapy. To facilitate this procedure, a mandatory undertaking can be taken from all the patients to report on the 15th day after the discharge or recovery. Thereafter, they will be tested for fitness for blood donation. A separate plasma bank may be formed for the procedure at every place with the help of the blood banks in the public as well as the private sector.”

The letter states, “The government may make this procedure of blood donation for the plasma collection compulsory as per the provisions of the ‘Epidemic Act 1897 or a new Ordinance. We at IMA, Maharashtra state, strongly feel that the increased availability of plasma will not only improve the recovery rate of the Covid-19 patients, but also reduce the mortality in the state of Maharashtra.”