Tally breaches 20,000 in Pune metropolitan region, 996 turn +ve on increased testing

PUNE: The Pune Metropolitan Region (PMR) added 996 Covid-19 cases on Saturday, its highest single-day tally so far, taking the total caseload in the region to 20,023 primarily on increased testing.

Of the fresh cases, the Pune municipal limits recorded 814 — the highest for the areas so far. While Pimpri Chinchwad municipal limits added 128 cases, rural as well as Cantonment areas reported 54 cases.
For last two days, the region had reported over 700 cases. On Friday, 787 cases were added to the tally. “The collection of swabs of suspected patients has gone up. It has remained in the range of 3,000 to 3,500 for the last few days. Concentrated efforts are under way to increase swab collection, including deployment of mobile vans, commencement of swab collection centres near to containment zones,” Ramchandra Hankare, head of PMC’s health department, said.
19 succumb to contagion
Nineteen more patients succumbed to Covid-19 in PMR on Saturday, pushing its death toll to 693. The deceased included a 75-year-old woman from Sinhagad Road, a 67-year-old man from Dhankawdi, a 59-year-old woman from Kondhwa, a 74-year-old man from Pashan, a 65-year-old man from Ghorpadi, a 77-year-old man from Bhavani Peth, a 56-year-old man form Kasba Peth and an 85-year-old man of Kondhwa.
According to the data released by the district health office, 567 Covid-19 patients were discharged in the region in the last 24 hours after they were declared cured.