Akola Covid-19 debacle: 435 cases, 28 deaths in 49 days

Nagpur: Akola surpassed Nagpur in number of confirmed Covid-19 positive cases on Tuesday. With 20 new cases, Akola’s total cases stand at 435 — two more than Nagpur. While Nagpur took 75 days from its first case to the 433rd case, Akola took only 49 days. Akola also recorded three deaths — including two patients undergoing treatment in isolation ward — on Tuesday, taking Covid-19 death toll to 28.With this, now half of the Covid-19 deaths in Vidarbha have happened in Akola.
The figures above will be far more frightening if one adjusts them for Akola district’s 19 lakh population, to be statistically fair to Nagpur city, which has around 30 lakh people. So, Akola district leaves Nagpur far behind in number of cases and fatalities, most of which have been from Akola city.
Novel coronavirus has spread across the district, and 80% wards of Akola municipal corporation, said officials on Tuesday.
Taking serious note of this situation, collector Jitendra Papalkar on Tuesday announced health check-up of every citizen in Akola. “From May 28 to June 3, we will conduct health check-up of each and every member of every family in municipal limits. The city has been divided into four zones for this. Fruit vendors, milkmen, and vegetable vendors will be checked on priority,” he said.
Sources claimed Akola has many unreported cases of Covid-19 too. There has been unusual surge in deaths in hotspot regions, and many of them could be Covid-19 patients who went unreported.
The grave situation has forced the administration to appoint additional collector Narendra Lonkar as administrator to GMCH Akola.
Interestingly, Akola is headquarters of the health services division and has its own Covid-19 testing facility at GMCH in town. Now, Lonkar, an IAS, will look after coordination between all departments of GMCH, the lab facility and administration. In last six days, from May 20 to May 26, Akola has recorded 156 new cases and eight deaths.
Akola has also seen the highest number of deaths in Vidarbha. The only suicide in Vidarbha region also happened in Akola. Out of the 28 deaths in Akola, 13 have happened in the isolation ward with the patient undergoing treatment. Doctors at the GMCH blame comorbidities of patients who died in isolation.
A senior doctor in ENT department said most cases here came in very critical condition. The overall health check-up of entire population might bring some good results for the town, the doctor said.
AKOLA AT A GLANCE
Population: 19,40,966 (estimates as per Aadhaar uidai.gov.in, Feb 2019 data)
Samples tested: 4,350 (approx 216 people per lakh population)
Negative: 3,864 (88%)
Positive: 435 (10%)
Pending: 51 (2%)
Discharged: 289 (66.43% recovery rate)
Deaths: 28 (6.43% mortality rate)