Dist crosses 30k +ve cases; first 10k in 153 days, 20k in 19 days

Nagpur: The district surpassed 30,000 Covid-19 positive cases on Saturday. It took 153 days to register the first 10,000 cases while remaining 20,000 came in just 19 days.
The district had registered first case on March 11. On August 10, the caseload reached 10,681 while on August 20 the count increased to 20,271. The Covid count of the district reached 30,885 after addition of 1,348 fresh cases on Saturday.
By the end of July, the district had registered 5,392 cases. At that time, it was on the 10th position among 35 districts in the state. Now, it is at 5th position after Mumbai, Thane, Pune and Nashik and has overtaken Raigad, Jalgaon, Palghar, Aurangabad and Solapur. Even, the cases of the district are high when compared with four of five districts.
Cases started increasing after lockdown was eased from June 1. The caseload has increased manifold while positivity rate is around 30% since beginning of August. The month has seen five times increase in cases, with two days still remaining.
The district crossed first 1,000 cases on June 14, 96 days after registering the first case. Now, over 1,000 cases are being registered on a daily basis. On August 14, the district had registered 1,108 cases, which was the first time it crossed 1,000 cases in a single day.
In the last 12 days, the district had recorded over 1,000 cases on 11 days. The highest single day count is 1,516 cases registered on August 26.
If district’s population is considered to be 48 lakh, then 0.64% persons have been infected so far.
Alarmingly, the district is also witnessing sharp surge in Covid-19 deaths. Only two deaths were reported till end of April. It increased to 11 on May 31. The number of deaths was 25 by end of June and 126 on July 31. As on Saturday, the number of fatalities is 979 which mean 853 deaths in 29 days of August.
Out of the total 30,885 cases in district, the city has contributed 24,515 (79.37%) and rural areas 6,071 (19.65%). Remaining 299 (0.98%) cases came from other districts.
The state government has projected 44,451 cases in the district by August 31. MLC Parinay Fuke said, “Projection was made considering actual increase in cases in the past. Projection might be correct as far as spread of disease is concerned. Like I said earlier too, the official number of cases might be low than the projected number due to less testing. The testing has not increased in the district,” he said. The district conducts under 5,000 tests per day, which need to be doubled, as per experts.
The NMC had stated that the city is inching towards the peak of Covid-19. The district administration had projected 50,000 new cases in the next one month.
Guardian minister Nitin Raut had earlier declared that community spread has already started in city. He has proposed full lockdown with curfew in the city on weekends to check the spread of infection. The association of traders is demanding abolition of odd-even system before implementing weekend lockdown. Final decision is likely on Monday.