A sharp spike of 53 new COVID-19 cases was reported from Pune district over a 12-hour span, taking the district’s cumulative tally of active positive cases to 734, said health officials on Thursday.
Interactive map of confirmed coronavirus cases in India
With the accretion of fresh cases, the district has witnessed a surge of more than 120 new cases over a 36-hour span. It had recorded 68 new cases on Wednesday, while its death count stood at 59 till Wednesday night.
“Totally 32 new cases were reported after 9 p.m. on Wednesday, while a further 21 were reported in the intervening night between Wednesday and Thursday,” said District Health Officer (DHO) Bhagwan Pawar.
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Till date, Pune district had reported 934 positive cases, of which 141 were discharged after recovery and a further 59 had succumbed to the contagion, said health officials.
Of the 734 active cases undergoing treatment at hospitals in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune city currently has more than 650 active cases.
As per figures from the Pune Zilla Parishad’s Health Department till late Wednesday, the total of active positive cases was 681, of which Pune city had 633, Pimpri-Chinchwad had 36 active cases, while rural areas in Pune district like Baramati, Velhe, Shikrapur had 12.
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Of these 681, a total of 498 cases are at present in Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC)– run hospitals, 118 in Sassoon and BJ Medical College Hospitals, 17 in civil hospitals, 12 in rural hospitals and 36 in PCMC-run hospitals.
‘Testing capability increased’
“We have significantly increased our testing capability. On Wednesday, we tested a record of 750 samples in the district. Including facilities in private labs, we now boast a capacity of testing 1,035 samples,” said Ayush Prasad, CEO, Pune Zilla Parishad.
Thus far, 56 of the 59 deaths have been reported from Pune city, while one from Baramati (Pune Rural) and two from Pimpri-Chinchwad.
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Meanwhile, Malegaon in Nashik, a major virus hotspot in north Maharashtra, reported five more cases on Thursday as the city’s tally rose to 99 while the district’s cumulative tally surged to 115, including nine fatalities thus far.
In all, 431 new cases were reported from the State on Wednesday taking the cumulative tally to 5,649, while the death toll touched 269.
