With cases continuing to soar, the Pimpri-Chinchwad civic administration has appealed to people to stay at home by observing a janata curfew on Sundays and Thursdays every week, even as Pune district reported more than 1,288 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, taking the total tally to 28,599.
The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) commissioner Shravan Hardikar made this appeal to citizens to check the spread of novel coronavirus in PCMC, which has reported a total of more than 4,700 cases, of whom more than 2,400 are active.
As opposed to the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), which reported steady rise in cases throughout March, April, May and June, the PCMC had managed to check the spread till the end of May.
“After unlock started on June 1, the cases have drastically soared in PCMC. Undoubtedly, relaxation on intra-city and inter-district travel, coupled with people letting their guard down by not taking precautions has aggravated the surge,” said a senior PCMC official.
Pimpri-Chinchwad has seen at least 1,500 active cases since the end of May, with an average surge of more than 150 new cases a day in the past fortnight. As many as 82 people have died so far.
Mayor tests positive
In another development, eight members of the family of Pune Mayor, Murlidhar Mohol — a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader — have tested positive. Mr. Mohol had also tweeted on Saturday evening saying he had tested positive.
On Saturday, Datta Sane, a prominent local leader from the NCP and a sitting corporator in the PCMC, had succumbed to the virus.
Till date, at least two BJP MLAs and prominent leaders in the district – one in Pimpri-Chinchwad and one in Pune city – have tested positive along with a number of BJP and Nationalist Congress Party corporators.
Surge in cases
Pune has been reporting an average daily surge of 1,100 new cases for the last four days.
The district saw a rise 1,288 new cases till Sunday evening. Pune district’s death toll has now reached 869 with 16 fatalities reported on Sunday, according to Pune Divisional Commissioner Dr. Deepak Mhaisekar.
Of the total tally of 28,599, there are 11,019 active cases. Pune has reported 16,723 recoveries so far.
Of the active cases, 617 patients are critical.
Meanwhile, the death toll in Solapur district — the worst-affected after Pune — has climbed to 289 with two new fatalities reported on Sunday.
The death toll in Pune division — which includes Pune, Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur and Solapur districts — has now reached 1,237.
Dr. Mhaisekar said that Pune division’s tally has reached 33,857, of whom 12,291 are active cases while more than 20,000 people have been discharged till 3 p.m. on Sunday.
Solapur reported 101 new cases to take its tally to 3,102 of whom 979 were active.
Satara reported 53 new cases, taking the total to 1,304 with 465 active cases. The district’s death toll has currently risen to 55.
Sangli reported 13 new cases to take its tally to 463 of whom 189 are active ones, while with 37 new cases, Kolhapur’s total tally stands at 941 of whom 191 are active.
Both Sangli and Kolhapur have reported 12 fatalities each so far.