People gathered for shopping on Sunday ahead of ten day long Ganpati festival. (Express Photo By Ganesh Shirsekar)Ahead of the ten-day Ganesh festival, which begins Wednesday and is set to see crowded gatherings and an influx of people to Pune from other cities, the civic health department has urged residents suffering from influenza-like illnesses (symptoms like fever, cold and cough) to stay home and take adequate measures like sufficient rest and increase intake of fluids.
“There are no Covid pandemic-like restrictions anymore and as yet there is no government advisory. We are getting as many as 200 Covid-19 cases daily for the last ten days or so, apart from other viral infections. So, it would be prudent for those with symptoms to stay at home,” Dr Sanjeev Wavare, assistant medical chief of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) told The Indian Express.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, Pune has reported around 14.96 lakh cases and 19,739 deaths. According to a district health department report, Pune city has reported over 6.8 lakh cases of Covid while Pimpri-Chinchwad has reported 3.6 lakh cases. As per the district health authorities, daily around 2,500 samples are being tested with close to 250-270 new cases being detected daily. According to the latest report released on August 28, around 96 persons have been hospitalised due to the infection while 1,712 are in home isolation.
Dr Sanjay Pujari, infectious diseases expert and member of the Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) national Covid task force, said the trajectory for Covid was difficult to predict as the immunity wall among the population was variable. “So, our advice to people will always be to mask up, especially in closed settings and crowded places as Covid transmission is airborne and droplets can remain suspended in the air for a longer time,” Pujari said.
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At the state health department, too, officials have advised those with influenza-like illnesses and severe acute respiratory infection to strictly avoid public places. Dr Pradeep Awate, Maharashtra surveillance officer, told The Indian Express that the Covid situation seems to have stabilised with a daily average of 2,500 cases being reported. “Even if the Covid situation is more or less stable, we have noted a rise in cases of A(H1N1) virus (swine flu),” he said. Maharashtra has reported more than 80 lakh cases of Covid since the pandemic began with 1.48 lakh deaths. This year, though, there has been a rise in cases of H1N1 virus, Awate said.