PUNE: The number of active Covid-19 cases dropped to over eight-month low of 942 in the rural parts of Pune Metropolitan Region (PMR) on Monday before rising marginally on Tuesday, recording a decline of 25% in the last eight days alone.
The trend, experts said, was indicative of the pandemic slowing down, but a clear picture was expected to emerge only in the coming days. “A close watch on the next few weeks will make it clear if the trend is here to stay. Any spike in cases could be attributed to people’s laxity during the festivals,” a health expert said.
The active cases have come down in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad municipal limits too. In PMC limits, the tally has dropped to multi-month low of 645, while it has shrunk to just 445 in the Pimpri Chinchwad area, taking the PMR’s overall active case count to 2,059 — a 17% drop since the beginning of this month.
Health officials said the drop in daily detections and rise in recoveries were the prime reasons for the reduction in active caseload in the region. “The rural areas have been reporting less than 200 cases daily for the last few days, without any spurt in case count. Daily case count in the PMC and PCMC limits has continued to stay below 100 for some time now,” a health official said.
The active caseload in the rural parts was way ahead of Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad municipal limits for almost three months (July, August, September), making them the area of concern for the health authorities . It was only last month that the cases started declining.
“For last five consecutive days, the rural parts have added less than 100 new cases every day. We are expecting a similar trend to continue. A drop in cases has also led to decline in the hotspot areas in the rural parts. We are tracking the cases and appealing citizens to continue following Covid-appropriate behaviour,” another health official said.
PMC officials said they would be monitoring daily cases as the next two weeks were crucial. “Citizens should not ignore the symptoms and undergo test. The swab collection centres are operational at every ward. Teams have been deployed for collection of swab and testing,” a civic health official said.
