E-Paper
Positivity rate increases during lockdown in Pune city
PMC has not been able to complete this task as the average contact tracing has been 10.79 per cent.
If the district administration imposed the lockdown to bring down Covid infection in Pune, the growing positivity rate indicates it hasn’t served its purpose.
City’s positivity rate, according to figures shared by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), during the lockdown has increased from 17.11% on July 12 to 19.03% till July 22, a period when PMC drastically increased swab testing. By July 23, when lockdown ended, it stood at 19.18 percent.
The PMC had insisted that it will use the lockdown period for 100 per cent contact tracing and 100 per cent testing. However, PMC has not been able to complete this task as the average contact tracing has been 10.79 per cent. At the same time, doubling rate of positives has come down from 19.71 per cent on July 12 to 14.46 per cent on July 22.
The 10-day lockdown imposed in the PMC jurisdiction from July 13 to 23, in which its severity was high for first five days, ended on Thursday with Pune returning back to pre-lockdown (June 12) situation.
Pune district collector Naval Kishore Ram said, “The lockdown has helped us in certain ways, the recovery rate of Pune has increased and it is at top in the country. The current recovery rate of Pune is close to 64 per cent. We all are working to bring down the number of positive cases and through public support I am sure that it will come down.”
During the second phase of latest lockdown, the PMC offered some relaxations in its limits with grocery and vegetable shops were allowed.
Talking about this increase in the positivity rate Dr Bharat Purandare, infectious disease physicians from Deenanath Mangeshkhar said, “If the positivity rate is increasing of the city which means the infection is getting more intense and there is no need to worry about it. It is good as the herd immunity will come when the positive cases will reach to a certain number and bad news is that some of them will die from these infected people. The positivity rate of Italy and other European countries was around 60 per cent couple of months back.
Fortunately in India and in our Pune the rate is still low may be due to our geographical conditions, we have more young population and our immunity power is more. And this increase is accepted the positivity rate will increase geometrically and when a significant portion of population is infected then herd immunity comes and the pandemic comes down.”
