Highs & lows of Nashik’s Covid pandemic fight in 2020

NASHIK: The year 2020 witnessed the Covid pandemic with a total of 72,353 positive cases, 70,349 recoveries and 975 fatalities. The first Covid patient in the city was identified on April 6 and first Covid death here took place on May 5.
There had been only 49 positive cases till May 19. By May 31, the city had seen 234 Covid-19 cases, 81 recoveries and 10 deaths.The number of cases started going up after the movement of people increased following lockdown relaxations in June. The city had 2,182 cases in June and the number tripled to 9,441 cases by July.
There was a significant spike in cases in the month of September with 887 cases being recorded on average every day. By September 30, the overall tally of Covid positive patients in the city had increased to 51,472. Of them, 26,021 cases were recorded in September alone.
Things changed for better in October due to various measures implemented by the civic body. The average daily case count dropped to 338 in October. In November, the daily count further reduced to 157. Moreover, the recovery rate also increased from June-end’s 42.6% to 96.9% now.
Increased tracing, testing and timely treatment led to the drop in the number of cases and the death rate. Though the number of cases had increased in September, the recoveries too had increased, said Bapusaheb Nagargoje, the medical superintendent. “Moreover we also conducted a survey to find the suspected Covid cases under the ‘My Family My Responsibility’ campaign,” he said.
The Covid death rate reduced from 4.8% in June to 1.3% now. The average number of daily cases increased marginally in the city in December when compared to cases in November.