Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra's Aurangabad district go past 2,000 mark

AURANGABAD: The number of Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra's Aurangabad district crossed the 2,000 mark and reached to 2,020 on Sunday after 70 more people tested positive for the infection, a district official said. The death toll stands at 99 so far.
The number of the recovered patients stood at 1,184, while 737 others are undergoing treatment, the official said.
When asked about the rise in the number of cases, municipal commissioner Astik Kumar Pandey said, "We are in the unlock mode now".
He said a change is observed in the trajectory of coronavirus, which has been in Aurangabad since the last three months now.
"In the beginning, cases were reported from densely- populated areas and the average contacts of an infected person used to be 20.
"But now new cases are reported from sparsely populated areas with average number of contacts at 5 to 10," Pandey said.
When asked about the number of tests done in Aurangabad city, he said testing has been done aggressively.
"We would have completed 14,000 tests by Monday in the city with 11 lakh population," Pandey said, adding that guidelines of the ICMR are being strictly followed.
"We are trying to identify elderly patients and those with comorbidities at an early stage through enhanced monitoring," he said.
He said the existing health infrastructure can accommodate 9,000 patients at present.