Vidarbha districts conducting more tests, reducing their positivity rate

NAGPUR: As test positivity rate (TPR) has become the most important indicator to upgrade the level of unlocking, almost every district in Vidarbha has started conducting more and more tests now. Despite the number of new cases declining constantly, more than 37,500 tests were conducted in the 11 districts of Vidarbha in last 24 hours.
This shows that district administrations are focusing on contact tracing, which is necessary to control Covid-19.Districts like Bhandara and Gondia have less than 0.5% TPR, while Nagpur too reported only 81 positives out of more than 8,000 tests on Tuesday, which means less than 1% test positivity.
On Friday, the TPR will be reviewed and the fate of districts will be decided. As on Tuesday, almost every district in Vidarbha has less than 5% TPR. If this continues for the next three days, all districts will get entry in level 1 and life in Vidarbha will move towards normalcy very fast.
On Tuesday, only 791 new cases were reported. On the other hand, the number of recoveries — 1,853 patients — was more than double of it. Now, 10,54,771 out of the 10,90,246 cases till date have recovered and Vidarbha’s overall recovery rate has increased to 96.7%.
The number of under-treatment patients has reduced to 14,081 now, which is not even 1.3% of the total cases reported. This indicates that a large number of hospital beds are vacant, which is another important criterion in unlocking guidelines.
The death toll is also reducing daily, but Amravati and Wardha continue to be the districts to watch out for. In all, 22 deaths were reported in Vidarbha on Tuesday. Wardha reported 4 deaths and Amravati 5. Both districts share borders and many cases and deaths are still coming from the border areas.
Bhandara: Out of 1,679 tests done in the last 24 hours, only 9 tested positive, which means the test positivity rate is around 0.5%. This indicates a sharp drop in weekly TPR of the district, which may upgrade Bhandara into level 1 of unlocking this Friday. There were 98 recoveries and no death was reported for the 4th day in a row. Bhandara now has only 645 patients under treatment.
Gondia: With 13 patients testing positive out of 2,733 tests conducted in last 24 hours, Gondia’s TPR is less than 0.5% now. Gondia is already in level 1 of unlock. With 41 patients recovering in a day and one death, the district now has 40,960 cases, 39,962 recoveries and 694 deaths. Only 304 patients are under treatment here and 248 of them are in home isolation. Gondia’s recovery rate is 97.5%.
Gadchiroli: The district conducted 1,072 tests in last 24 hours and 57 of them were found positive. Two deaths were reported on Tuesday. Now, Gadchiroli’s caseload is at 29,721 and death toll at 729. There were 62 recoveries, taking the total count to 28,577. This takes Gadchiroli’s recovery rate to 96.15%. Only 415 patients are under treatment now.
Akola: The district conducted more than 2,000 tests and 100 of them were positive, which took the Covid tally to 56,804. On the other hand, 284 patients recovered. Now, 53,376 patients have recovered in the district. A 54-year-old man from Murtizapur died during treatment, taking the toll to 1,105. Akola still has 2,323 patients under treatment.
Buldhana: Only 90 out of nearly 4,000 tests done in last 24 hours in Buldhana were positive, which is a good news for the district. With 129 patients recovering, now the district has 85,709 total cases, 84,242 recoveries and 635 deaths, including 2 deaths reported on Tuesday. Now, 832 patients are under treatment.
Washim: On Tuesday there were 71 new cases and 108 recoveries in Washim. No death was reported. Now, the district has a casetally of 40,743, with 39,306 of them recovered and 591 deaths. Now, 845 patients are under treatment.
Wardha: There were 30 new cases, 4 deaths and 147 recoveries on Tuesday, taking the caseload to 48,858, total recoveries to 46,900 and toll to 1,309. Active positive cases are 649. An 80-year-old man from Wardha, 65 and 50-year-old men from Selu and a 56-year-old man from Deoli died during treatment. 2,209 test reports were received and the 30 cases were reported from Hinganghat (9), Wardha (8), Ashti (4), Arvi and Selu (3 each), Deoli (2) and Karanja (1).
Amravati: An addition 201 cases and five deaths on Tuesday indicated that the district was slowly but surely tiding over the second wave of coronavirus. Though the caseload reached 94,490, the day's 409 recoveries took the total to 90,008, implying a recovery rate of 95.3%. The toll reached 1,511, leaving 2,971 patients under treatment.
Yavatmal: The district recorded one death on Tuesday, which took the toll to 1,782. The administration received 2,918 test reports, of which 33 (21 men and 12 women) were found positive. Currently there are 728 active positive patients, of whom 286 are in hospitals and 442 are in home isolation.
Of the 72,452 Covid patients till date, 69,945 — including 68 on Tuesday — have recovered. The test positivity rate is 11.1% and the fatality rate is 2.5%. The daily positivity rate is 1.13%, said district health officer Dr Hari Pawar.
Chandrapur: There were 106 new case detections and118 patients recovered on Tuesday, leaving 1,447 patients under treatment. A lone death was reported during the day, raising the toll to 1,486. The caseload has risen to 83,755, while recoveries now amount to 80,822.