PUNE: District collector Rajesh Deshmukh on Saturday suggested increased testing in the 85 hotspots in Pune to ensure speedy isolation of Covid-19 infected people, against the backdrop of rural areas registering 4.6% weekly positivity rate — 0.7% higher than the district’s average of 3.9%.
The collector said the talukas of concern — Ambegaon, Indapur Shirur, Baramati, Junnar and Daund — registered a high weekly positivity rate (WPR). “We have been told to ramp up testing in these areas. The hotspots have been identified and testing would be increased in these areas,” he said.
The district administration has also identified 10 villages recording a rise in cases. They are Wagholi, Manchar, Narayangaon, Shikrapur, Nanded, Otur, Nirgudsar, Shelgaon, Rajuri and Hingnibirdi. The district administration carries out detailed surveys every week to enlist new hotspot villages to increase testing in those areas. Health experts iterated that rural areas continued to be of concern in Pune district.
Deshmukh, the district collector, said enough rapid antigen test (RAT) kits had been procured to ramp up testing in the hotspots, besides RT-PCR kits. A total of 104 laboratories in the district conduct both RAT and RT-PCR tests. Most of them are in the city areas. The administration was deploying mobile vans to ensure swab samples were quickly transported to these laboratories from remote areas, a health official said.
“The collector and commissioners also assured action against the laboratories delaying the Covid test data entry beyond 24 hours, affecting the district’s WPR,” said a health official.
