The surge in new COVID-19 cases across Pune district continued at an alarming rate with more than 170 new cases being reported over a 12-hour span on Sunday as the district’s cumulative case tally (including deaths and recoveries) surged to 15,183, said authorities.

“A total 179 cases have been reported since Saturday evening. 70 of these were reported between 9 p.m. Saturday and midnight, and a further 109 cases till today [Sunday] morning,” said Pune District Health Officer Bhagwan Pawar.

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This is perhaps the highest 12-hour spike reported in the district since March when the first COVID-19 cases were reported from Maharashtra.

There are 5,342 active cases in the district’s total tally while as many as 9,257 persons have been discharged so far.

The district’s death toll currently stands at 584 with more than 15 fatalities being reported on Saturday.

On Saturday, Pune district reported its highest case surge till date, recording a whopping 823 new COVID-19 cases. Of these, 403 cases were reported within Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) limits.

More worryingly, 381 cases were reported in a single day in Pimpri-Chinchwad, whose active case count was less than 100 until three weeks ago. Twentysix new cases also emerged from areas in the Pune rural region.

As per figures given by the Pune Zilla Parishad’s Health Department till Saturday evening, there were 5,163 (excluding Sunday’s surge) active positive cases in various hospitals across the district of whom 4,120 are undergoing treatment in hospitals in Pune city, 634 in Pimpri-Chinchwad, and as many as 409 in Pune rural areas.

323 in critical condition

As many as 323 among these were in a critical condition, with more than 40 of these cases reported in the past two days.

With the contagion spreading rapidly in Pimpri-Chinchwad’s slum clusters, the number of active cases in the township has exceeded 650, while the PCMC’s case tally stood at 1,711 with 42 deaths till Saturday.

Dr. Pawar said that till Saturday, the samples of a total 1,00,757 persons had been tested in Pune district of which more than 84,000 samples had returned negative. A total 6,584 persons were at present kept in quarantine facilities in the district.

Meanwhile, Aurangabad district in the State’s Marathwada region, too, reported a sharp overnight spike of 137 new cases as the district’s total case tally reached 3,497.

The district has reported nearly 300 active cases in the past 48 hours.

Officials said of the total cases, 1,470 were active while 1,840 persons had recovered and had been discharged. A total 187 persons have succumbed to the pandemic so far in Aurangabad, a major virus hotbed in Marathwada.