Nandurbar third district in Maharashtra to be Covid free

NASHIK: The decline in Covid cases in many parts of Maharashtra has started reflecting in districts becoming free of the infectious disease. On Thursday, the tribal-dominated district of Nandurbar in North Maharashtra became Covid-free, the third in the state after Bhandara and Dhule.
The overall decline in cases has resulted in ten districts in the state — Amravati, Akola, Washim, Buldhana, Wardha, Gondia, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli, Hingoli and Nanded — showing less than 100 active cases on Wednesday night.
Covid cases in Nandurbar district had become a cause of concern during the second wave of the pandemic. The last Covid patient in Nandurbar was discharged from a private hospital in Nandurbar town on Wednesday afternoon. Nandurbar has a population of over 16 lakh.
“The second wave of the pandemic was deadly in our district as compared to the first one. The local administration rose to the occasion to curb the spread of the virus,” district guardian minister K C Padavi told TOI.
Padavi admitted that the administration had initially faced infrastructure and manpower constraints due to a sharp rise in daily cases during the second wave. “The state government extended a helping hand by providing funds to ramp up medical infrastructure in the district. People too followed the restrictions imposed,” he said.
The first wave in Nandurbar, which unfolded on April 17, saw 9,523 Covid cases. But in the second wave, the total cases were 28177, three times more. Even the death toll in the second wave (726) was much higher than that in the first (224).
“Nandurbar was one of the Covid hotspots in April-May this year, when the active cases were over 9,000. There were days when the daily positive cases were over 1,200. We had shortage of beds at Nandurbar civil hospital, which is one of the main Covid treatment facilities in the district. We will have to continue with the vigil since there is a prediction of a third wave,” said district civil surgeon Dr Ragunath Bhoye.
They faced the challenge of convincing tribals with Covid-like symptoms to get tested and treated for the disease. However, former district collector Dr Rajendra Bharud, along with the health department, deployed field staff to undertake vigorous contact tracing in villages and isolated patients with no or mild symptoms at village schools and other facilities. The administration stopped home isolation of patients. IAS officer Manisha Khatri recently replaced Bharud as the district collector.
“Nandurbar was the only district in North Maharashtra that had a Covid care train at the railway station to admit and treat mild Covid patients since the Covid Care Centres in the district were full,” recalled Bhoye.
Additional civil surgeon Dr Kantrao Satpute said that vigorous testing and tracing of contacts of positive patients for over four months this year yielded results. “We are presently undertaking over 500 tests daily but we will immediately ramp up testing if fresh cases start emerging in the district,” he added.