Covid-19 Maharashtra : Worst affected six districts showing drop in active cases

Pune : There has been a continuous increase in coronavirus infected patients, however the number of active cases over the past fortnight has slightly declined as analysis made by the state government. The highest hit districts were Pune, Mumbai, Satara, Sangli, Ratnagiri and Raigad, which are now showing a drop in the number of active COVID-19 cases from September 12 onwards, said Dr Pradip Awate, state epidemiologist.

There were 2,73,228 active COVID-19 cases on 27 September across the state while on 0n September 18, the number of cases were 3,00,887. Therefore there has been an increasing decline in the number of active cases since then.

Dr Shashank Joshi, member of Maharashtra task force on COVID-19, said ‘Maharashtra is increasingly conducting test and for the first time, there are signs that we may just bend the curve. We are conducting 1.5 lakh tests every day and there is better management of micro-containment strategies. We are also aggressively looking at citizens’ responsibility to prevent the spread of infection and adopt safety measures like wearing masks and avoiding crowds.’

Washim, Yavatmal, Bhandara, Parbhani, Beed, Dhule, Nandurbar, Ahmednagar and Jalgaon are among other districts where active cases have declined.

Earlier during the muted Ganpati festival celebrations, crowds had gathered at some places following which hospitals had reported a spike in cases. According to authorities at several hospitals, there has been a slight decline in new infections but it is still a case of ‘wait and watch’.

So far, in Pune 6.15 lakh samples have been collected at COVID-19 care centres, private laboratories and private hospitals by rapid antigen tests till date and at least 1.42 lakh people have tested positive. According to PMC health chief Ramchandra Hankare, ‘there has been a slight decline as on Monday with less than 1,000 cases (779 tested positive for the infection). On September 20, there were 1,700 new cases that had tested positive. At least 3,212 samples were tested on Monday’.

Sudhir Mehta, coordinator of Pune platform for COVID-19 response, has urged the city administration to consider opening parks and gardens with proper precautionary measures. ‘We can no longer keep such places shut as open spaces have proven to have smaller spread. Parks and gardens can be good, safe places provided enough physical distancing is maintained and masks are worn and plus it will add in fitness.

Declining cases from September 20 to September 27
• Pune 74,768 58,932
• Mumbai 27,787 26,716
• Sangli 10,767 9,970
• Ratnagiri 2,862 2,602
• Nagpur 19,100 16,619