Coronavirus: Pune emerges as worst affected city with maximum Covid-19 cases leaving Delhi behind

About three and a half lakh additional rapid antigen kits have been procured for testing across all the three jurisdictions.

Pune has become the worst affected city in the country as it added 1,931 new Covid-19 infections on Monday to emerge as the city giving highest number of Coronavirus cases in the country. Pune left behind Delhi in the number of Coronavirus infections as previously the national capital had the highest number of Coronavirus cases in the country, according to an Indian Express report. The tally of Covid-19 cases in Pune reached the figure of 1,75,105 cases surpassing the count in Delhi which is 1,74,748. The medical infrastructure of Pune is also under immense stress as it also has the highest number of active cases of Coronavirus in the country. The number of active cases in Pune is about 52,172 which is more than two and a half times of the active cases in Mumbai and more than three times that in Delhi. Presently, Mumbai has about 20,000 active cases whereas Delhi has only about 15,000 cases. The number of Covid-19 related casualties has also breached the 4,000 mark in Pune.

Despite all efforts at the hands of the city administration and the state government, the situation in Pune seems to be getting out of hands. In addition to the regular visits of Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, who is also the guardian minister of the city, CM Uddhav Thackeray himself doubled down and visited the city to oversee the arrangements. Reshuffling of senior officials heading the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), Pune divisional commissionerate, and Pune district collectorate and also does not seem to have helped the situation in the city.

Among the multiple civic bodies in the city, the jurisdiction under the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has been the most affected followed by that under the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) and Pune Rural. Divisional Commissioner Saurabh Rao was recently quoted as saying that with respect to the infection rate, the PMC is two weeks ahead of PCMC while PCMC is two weeks ahead of Pune Rural. He also said that the large number of cases in the city could also be attributed to the ramped up testing in the city. He said that about three and a half lakh additional rapid antigen kits have been procured for testing across all the three jurisdictions.