Cases count in city sees steady rise, Pawar calls emergency meet

With Covid-19 spreading at an alarming rate in and around Pune, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has called an emergency meeting on Sunday to take review the situation and take necessary decisions to contain the spread.

“I have called a meeting of senior government officers to review the Covid-19 situation. We will discuss the issue and accordingly take necessary steps to check the spread of the infection,” Pawar said.

He said the number of newly infected persons found everyday are more than those getting cured. “The active case count was going down, but the trend changed from February 1 onwards, and the number of new patients is increasing,” said Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. , adding it was necessary to take steps to arrest the spread.

Pawar said the government has already directed all district collectors in the state to take necessary decisions to check the spread in their area of operation. “It can put restrictions on public movements from 6 pm to 6 am. It is necessary to take action against those violating the rules, including those not wearing masks in public places,” he said.

In the city, the daily positivity rate was 4.6 percent in the first week of February, but it has increased above 10 percent in the last few days. The PMC has made it mandatory for passengers coming from Kerala to get their RT-PCR test done. The civic administration is closely monitoring each ward office area and is likely to reintroduce the strategy to declare micro containment zones in affected areas.

The active case count had dropped to as low as 1,383 on February 7 after touching the peak of around 18,000 in July last year and was 2,156 on February 18. The PMC has scaled up testing to identify and isolate infected patients as early as possible.

The PMC has also been asked to increase vaccination of healthcare workers and frontline workers. The civic administration is presently carrying out vaccination in 29 booths and is likely to increase the number of booths for easy access to beneficiaries.

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