As on July 12, the PMC’s mortality rate was 3.05 per cent, compared to 4.71 per cent a month ago. (File)
As it continues efforts to identify maximum number of Covid-19 patients and provide early treatment to the needy, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has seen a significant drop in mortality rate due to the disease across areas under its jurisdiction.
As on July 12, the PMC’s mortality rate was 3.05 per cent, compared to 4.71 per cent a month ago.
By June 12, PMC had registered 413 deaths while 8,777 had tested positive. A month later, the number of deaths has more than doubled, to 840, but the mortality rate has dropped as the number of infected patients has increased to 27,525.
The mortality rate of Covid-19 patients in Maharashtra has, however, increased. On June 12, the mortality rate in Maharasthra was 3.68 per cent and the country was 2.85 per cent. In one month, the mortality rate in Maharashtra rose by 0.36 per cent to 4.04 per cent, and dropped by 0.21 per cent across the country to 2.64 per cent.
The PMC has scaled up testing capacity to identify maximum patients and isolate them in time. It has been able to carry out tests of nearly 4,500 persons a day till now and plans to further increase the number of daily tests to 6,000. The introduction of rapid antigen tests has helped the civic administration increase the testing capacity.
Residents in the high-risk category and first contacts of a patient are tested with rapid testing kits, and if found positive, admitted to Covid care centres for treatment.
“Early treatment to identify patients by scaling up capacity of Covid tests as well as monitoring the health of co-morbid residents has helped the PMC reduce mortality rate,” said a civic officer.
The doubling rate of the infection, in the last few days, has dropped to the rate of a month ago – 19.71 days. The doubling rate had once increased to 22 days, but then again reduced to 17 days.
The ratio of confirmed positive cases to total number of tests has increased from 13.2 per cent to 16.71 per cent in a months’ time.
As the total number of cases inches closer to 30,000, Pune will go under another lockdown for 10 days, from July 14 to 23, with the first five days under strict lockdown norms.