Kalyan: KDMC's Covid-19 cases inch closer to 20,000-mark with 329 new infections

KALYAN: The Covid-19 case tally in Kalyan-Dombivli inched closer to the 20,000-mark as the twin city reported 329 new cases on Friday. Ten more patients succumbed to the infection, pushing the death toll in the region to 357.

From taking as many as 103 days to touch the 5,000-mark after the first Covid-19 case was reported on March 16, cases in Kalyan-Dombivli crossed the 10,000-mark on July 8 (in 11 days) and 15,000-mark on July 17 (in nine days). The current cumulative case tally is 19,967, of which 13,840 patients have recovered and gone home-a 69% recovery rate. Currently, there are 5,770 active cases in the region, according to the health department data.
But in the last 10 days, the number of new cases has mostly stayed below 400, except on July 25 when 434 cases were reported. Municipal commissioner Vijay Suryawanshi has attributed the dip to aggressive screening and testing and initiatives undertaken by the civic body. "Through the Family Doctor, Covid Fighter initiative, we have increased antigen tests and held camps to conduct testing. This has helped in early identification of cases, with help from local volunteer teams. Following the spike in cases, we had strengthened the health infrastructure which improved recovery rate among patients."
The doubling rate has also gone up to 32 days from the earlier 12 days, said Dr Pratibha Panpatil from the KDMC health department.
Sources said that besides conducting swab tests on 43,124 people, the KDMC carried out antigen tests on 5,469 suspected patients of which 1,783 tested postive for Covid-19.