With a spike of 300 new COVID-19 cases over a 12-hour span, Pune district on July 6 reported its highest overnight surge as its case tally went up to 28,899.
However, only 10,679 (around 35%) of these are active cases. With 16 fatalities being reported on July 5, the district’s death toll has reached 869.
The district has witnessed as many as 17,329 recoveries thus far.
Yet, despite a robust recovery rate, the drastic rise of new cases, not only in Pune city, but also in Pimpri-Chinchwad and the Pune Rural region, has set alarm bells ringing for the administration.
On July 5, the district had reported its highest single-day case surge of 1,288 with Pune city reporting 803 new ones, Pimpri-Chinchwad reporting a massive spike of 396 cases and the Pune Rural region recording 55.
With Pune city reporting an average 700 new cases for the past week, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) authorities said that a worrying 60% of the fresh cases were now emerging from outside the ‘containment zones.’
109 containment zones
PMC Commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad said that at present, there were 109 ‘containment zones’ in the city with a total area of 6.69 sq. km.
While the rate of sample testing had increased, the city’s case doubling rate had come down to 19.15 days from the 20.77 days recorded in the last week of June.
As per figures given by the Pune Zilla Parishad’s Health Department till the night of July 4, there were 10,379 (excluding the overnight surge) active positive cases in various hospitals across the district of whom 7,667 cases were undergoing treatment in hospitals in Pune city, 1,992 in Pimpri-Chinchwad and 720 in Pune’s rural areas.
As many as 491 of the active cases in the district are in a critical condition.
Pune district health officer Bhagwan Pawar said that till July 5, the samples of a total 1,66,687 persons had been tested in Pune district of which more than 1.34 lakh samples returned negative. A total of 28,599 persons were at present kept in quarantine facilities in the district.
Meanwhile, cases continued to surge unabated in Aurangabad district in the State’s Marathwada region as well, with an overnight rise of 150 new ones being reported from the district.
The district’s case tally has now reached 6,880 of which 3,196 are active. Till date, 3,374 persons have recovered and have been discharged, while the district’s death toll had gone up to 310.
