PUNE: Higher Covid-19 recoveries and fewer cases have helped bring down the active caseload to seven-month low in the Pune Metropolitan Region (PMR) on Thursday.
The number of active cases in PMR have dipped to 4,869, with Pune municipal limits sharing the maximum burden at 2,173 cases, followed by the Pimpri Chinchwad areas (1,504) and the rural parts (1,192). The region had last recorded less than 5,000 active cases in June 2020.
Since then, the active cases showed consistent rise in the region till November last year. Over the last three months, the cases have reduced continuously. At the beginning of December, the region had around 11,500 active cases, which reduced to around 6,000 at the start of January. In the last 21 days, the cases have further reduced by 1,200 to reach 4,869.
Health department officials said less than 1,900 patients were being treated at various Covid-19 designated hospitals, while about 3,000 patients were in home isolation in PMR.
Sanjeev Wavre, assistant health chief at PMC, said no alarming spurt has been reported in the number of cases in the last one month. “Daily new cases have been around 250 to 300, while the daily testing has been maintained at 3,500. The number of critical patients and those on the oxygen support have also reduced considerably. The positivity rate has also dropped to a single digit,” he said.
A drop in cases recently spurred the administration to close down the jumbo Covid facility on temporary basis. PMC officials said over 25 Covid Care Centres had been shut down. “We have closed down Covid Care Centres for the time being due to drop in cases. However, the machinery has been kept ready to tackle the situation in case of any spurt,” an official said.