Pune records highest overnight surge with 300 new COVID-19 cases 

Pune: Maharashtra being the worst affected state has been witnessing an unprecedented rise in Covid-19 cases. With a rise of 300 new positive cases of coronavirus over a time span of 12-hour, Pune recorded its highest spike in cases in overnight as the tally increased up to 28,899.

However, around 35 per cent which is around 10,679 of these have been reported as active cases. On July 5, the city recorded around 16 fatalities which had raised the death rates to 869. So far, Pune district has recorded more than 17,329 recoveries.

Despite the vigorous cases of recovery, the surge of active cases in Pune including the Pimpri-Chinchwad area and the Pune Rural region has been a warning sign for the state administration.

On July 5, the highest single-day spike of 1,288 positive cases was recorded in the district with 803 new cases in Pune city, a drastic rise of 396 cases in the Pimpri-Chinchwad region and around 55 cases witnessed in the Pune rural areas.

Since last week, Pune district has been witnessing an average of 700 new cases which has been alarming for the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) authorities. They said that the most concerning part is that 60 per cent of the new cases have been identified from outside the hotspot areas/containment zones.

PMC Commissioner, Shekhar Gaikwad informed that presently, Pune has around 109 hotspot zones with a total space of 6.69 sq km.

However, the testing rates have increased in the city and the doubling rates of active cases have fallen from 20.77 days to 19.15 days that was witnessed in the past week of June.

According to the data provided by the Pune Zilla Parishad’s Health Department till July 4 night, several hospitals across Pune had around 10,379 COVID-19 positive cases excluding the overnight rise, out of which 7,667 patients were under treatment in various hospitals in the city, 1,992 cases in Pimpri-Chinchwad area and 720 cases in Pune’s rural regions. However, more than 491 of the affected patients in the city are in serious condition.

Bhagwan Pawar, Health officer of Pune district said that a total 1,66,687 people have been tested in Pune till July 5 out of which over 1.34 lakh people were tested negative. Presently, around 28,599 people have been kept at quarantine centres in Pune district.

Several cases have been reported in Aurangabad district in Marathwada region as well with an overnight spike of 150 new cases in the district.

The case tally in the district has reached 6,880 out of which 3,196 are active cases. So far, around 3,374 have recovered from the infection while the fatality rate in the district has surged up to 310.