Covid-19: Active count nears 50,000 in Pune Metropolitan Region; 96% in home care

PUNE: The number of active Covid-19 cases in the Pune Metropolitan Region shot up to eight-month high of 49,917 on Friday, with a majority (96%) showing mild symptoms and staying in home isolation.

PMR added 10,076 cases of Covid-19 on Friday, including 5,480 from the Pune municipal limits, 2,562 from the Pimpri Chinchwad area and 2,034 from the rural and cantonment parts. Besides, as many as 4,272 people recovered in the region in the last 24 hours, including 2,674 discharges from the PMC limits alone.

A report by district health officer Bhagwan Pawar stated that 38,692 samples were tested in the region on Friday. More than 20,000 tests were conducted in the PMC limits, while 11,512 samples were checked in the PCMC limits.

Health officials said despite a rise in positive cases since the last few days, the cases in hospital care haven’t risen significantly and a majority of patients (48,020) were in home care. Only 1,897 patients in the region were in hospital care till Friday evening, the health officials said.

Experts said with a majority of the patients in home care, the health infrastructure is sufficient at the moment. “This also shows that the vaccines and natural immunity is working in favour of the people and keeping the infection mild in most. But, the authorities should stay ready for any dramatic rise in hospitalised patients to avoid a repeat of second wave, whcih happened due to the delta variant of the virus,” a health expert said.

The active case count in the PMC limits increased to 28,542 on Friday, while the PCMC areas have over 12,500 active patients. The region reported two deaths due to Covid on Friday. One patient each died in the PMC and rural parts. No fatality was reported in the PCMC limits.

The region’s progressive tally of positive cases reached 12.29 lakh on Friday evening, while recoveries increased above 11.60 lakh.

235 more Omicron cases in district

A total of 238 Covid-19 positive samples, including 235 from Pune district, were found infected with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in the state on Friday, taking Maharashtra’s new strain case tally to 1,605 and the district’s tally to 677. As many as 859 patients had been discharged after recovery, an official said.