THANE/KALYAN: The spread of Covid-19 infection in Thane and Kalyan cities, which recently crossed the one-lakh mark each, has picked up pace as the last 25,000 cases have been added in 18-19 days as compared to five months it took during the peak last year.
Municipal data showed that the number of Covid cases in Thane city was 75,229 on March 28, which crossed one lakh on April 14, clocking nearly 18 days. In comparison, Kalyan city took 19 days to add 25,000 cases from March 27.
The slowest growth of cases in Thane city was in the first lap of the pandemic when it took nearly five months for the numbers to swell up to 25,000 between March 12 and August 27, while the subsequent jump to 50,000 took around three months till November 23. The spate of infection slowed down post-Diwali and it took nearly four months to add 25,000 cases between November 2020 and March 28.
The death rate at 88 was also higher in Thane as compared to Kalyan which registered only 61 deaths in the duration of clocking 25,000 cases.
Thane civic officials said they were working on ensuring stern compliance of the curfew so that the patient load is reduced and also towards reducing the mortality rate as well by intensifying contact tracing. “The load on civic facilities is increasing and we are trying our best to ensure patients don’t suffer inconvenience,” said an official.
KDMC officials pointed out that their death rate is lower in comparison to Thane and oth-er cities in the metropolitan region. An official said, “Even th-ough the patient numbers are rising rapidly, only 61 deaths were reported in the last 19 days, which is only 0.2% of 25,000 patients. The overall death rate in the city is only 1.3%.”