Covid surge continues in Nagpur: Daily case tally over 2,200, district collector tests positive

As reported by The Indian Express earlier, Nagpur is one of the 17 districts in the country that have been identified by the Centre as major Covid-19 hotspots. On Saturday, central health authorities held a direct discussion with collectors and health officers of the district, and directed them to take steps to control the surge.

In Maharashtra, Nagpur has now emerged as the fifth biggest Covid-19 hotspot after Pune, Mumbai, Thane and Nashik. The share of Covid-19 cases and deaths from rural Nagpur is quite low, and the major surge has been seen within municipal limits. In Nagpur city, till date, 1,077 Covid-related deaths have been reported. The city’s share of positive cases is 34,352 out of total 43,737.

Till July, Nagpur district had recorded 126 deaths, but it started witnessing a sudden surge in cases from August. As many as 1,273 deaths have taken place in the last 39 days, averaging about 33 deaths every day.

The current mortality rate of the district stands at 3.23 per cent, which is slightly higher than that of the state’s 2.93 per cent.

Of the 43,237 cases so far, 30,461 patients have recovered, taking the recovery rate to 70.45 per cent, slightly less than the state’s average of 71.38 per cent. The recovery rate in Nagpur, however, has risen sharply from about 44 per cent three weeks ago.

Collector Ravindra Thakre confirmed that he had tested positive for Covid-19, and is “taking treatment for mild fever” at his residence. Thakre also said that central authorities had a meeting with collectors and health officials of 17 hotspot districts in Maharashrra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka last Saturday. “They reviewed the situation in these districts on basic parameters like mortality rate, positivity rate, discharge rate, doubling rate etc, and issued certain guidelines that included increasing contact tracing per positive person, increasing tests, strictly enforcing the containment zone regimen, etc,” Thakre told The Indian Express.

He, however, said, “They were satisfied with the number of tests being done in Nagpur district. Officials have ramped up testing over the past month, with about 7,000 to 8,000 tests being carried out daily across 50 centres spread all over the district.”

Then NMC chief Tukaram Mundhe was the first civic official to test positive for the disease. Subsequently, Nagpur Divisional Commissioner Sanjiv Kumar and Gondia Collector Kadambari Balkawde also tested positive for Covid-19.

Municipal Commissioner Radhakrishna B said, “We have a manpower crunch and have started recruiting doctors and paramedics in walk-in mode. We have enough beds… the high number of deaths is due to late reporting by patients, particularly by those with co-morbid conditions.”