Spike in Nagpur and Akola, but 5 districts in Vidarbha have no new cases

NAGPUR: A sudden spike of 51 cases in Nagpur after a long time and reporting of 84 confirmed positive cases was the only highlight of the Covid-19 scenario in Vidarbha on Friday.
Akola recorded 14 cases, followed by Amravati (12), Buldhana (5), Bhandara (1) and Chandrapur (1). Five districts — Yavatmal, Wardha, Gondia, Gadchiroli and Washim — reported no new case on Friday.
For the first time since May 21, no death was reported in Vidarbha. Between May 21 and June 4, 30 deaths were reported from the region.
On the recovery front, 33 patients were discharged from hospitals, the highest being 17 from Akola. Five patients were discharged from Nagpur, six from Gadchiroli and three from Buldhana. The recovery rate of Vidarbha continued to remain above 60%.
Akola reported 14 new cases, after a high spike of 45 on Thursday. These 14 cases are from 10 different localities. Cases in Akola surpassed the 700-mark and reached 726. On the other hand, 17 patients were discharged from Akola GMCH. Ten of them preferred to live in Covid Care centres as they don’t have home isolation facilities.
With 12 confirmed positive cases in a day, Amravati’s Covid-19 count reached 270 on Friday. With 16 deaths and 166 recovered persons, the active cases are 88 now.
A Rukmini Nagar-based private hospital seems to have become a covid hotspot as five of the 12 cases are linked to it. With three earlier cases, this hospital now has eight cases, but it has not yet been sealed.
“We have not sealed the hospital as it has patients. We have prevented the hospital from admitting new cases,” said AMC Commissioner Prashant Rode while talking to TOI.
“It is unfortunate that so many persons from the hospital have contracted the virus. We have asked the hospital management not to admit new patients and treat the existing ones by following the covid protocol. We will take swabs of all the staffers after five days of their quarantine,” he added.
According to an official, the hospital’s covid positives include a 35-year-old female security guard who hails from Frezerpura, a 23-year-old female relative of a nurse who resides in Rukmini Nagar in a rented room and tested positive two days ago, a 21-year-old female patient and her 52-year-old father and 44-year-old mother.
The virus caught two 22-year-old youths in its grip in Sarafa Bazar on Thursday evening and Aurangpura on Friday morning. It spread its tentacles in new localities of Mangaldham colony and Ansaarnagar where a 31-year-old male and a 65-year-old woman tested positive. While the Mangaldham colony youth is a credit officer in a finance company who came in contact with its cash officer who tested positive two days ago, the Ansaarnagar woman has been in the district general hospital for the last ten days, said an official.
Budhwara, a new hotspot, on Friday took its count to ten with three cases — all females (aged 22, 26 and 45) from a single family. Two of them are siblings. They are all contacts of a family youth who tested positive earlier after coming in contact with a Parvatinagar case.
Meanwhile, amid the threat of the coronavirus looming large, the city markets got unlocked on Friday after nearly two-and-a-half months.
Rajkamal square, Shyam Chowk, Jawahar road, Jaistumbh square were abuzz with activity as shopkeepers rolled up their shutters while customers maintained covid distancing. AMC had marked shops P1 and P2 for odd-even opening. “Malls, theatres and big markets have not been allowed to open and a decision in this respect will be taken shortly,” said collector Shailesh Naval.
One more person was positive in Chandrapur on Friday taking the total of positive patients to 27. The 62-year-old was admitted at the ICU of GMCH as a SARI patient on Thursday and his samples tested positive on Friday, informed civil surgeon Dr Nivrutti Rathod.
He informed that 22 patients have been treated and discharged from the hospital so far. Hence the number active patients in Chandrapur is now just five. Out of these, two are being kept at the Covid centre in the Chandrapur forest academy, while remaining three are admitted at Chandrapur GMCH.
There were 16 containment zones in district, however, five of these areas were released after completion of 14 days. Hence, now there just 11 containment zones in district. All 42 samples of close contacts and suspected people taken in 16 containment zones have turned out negative.
There was no new positive patient in Yavatmal on Friday. Currently there are 54 persons in the GMC isolation ward of whom 41 are active positive patients and the rest are presumptive cases.
Meanwhile, the administration has declared ward Nos. 1, 7 -10 (five wards) in Mahagaon as containment areas as there was a death followed by four positive patients.
One of the nurses in the Covid-19 hospital in GMC tested positive on June 2. Without knowing that she was a Covid-19 patient, this nurse went to the Lohara police station and lodged a complaint against one Suraj there. As soon as she tested positive, six cops present in the police station when the nurse reached there have been kept in home quarantine from Friday onwards for 14 days.