Maharashtra: 40-member team of doctors to analyse low Covid figures in Malegaon city

However, cases have been declining ever since in spite of low vaccination rates. The city as of Thursday had only 35 active Covid-19 cases.

“There were around 400 active cases last April at the peak of the second wave… now the number is only 35,” said Bhalchandra Gosavi, commissioner of the Malegaon Municipal Corporation.

To understand the sharp change in the infection pattern, last December, the Nashik district administration had written to Additional Chief Secretary Dr Pradeep Vyas requesting that tests be carried out to find out the reason behind the very low number of active cases.

“We don’t know how the cases dropped drastically. This needs to be studied scientifically and analysed, which can help in dealing with the ongoing third wave,” said Dr Swapnil Torane, MUHS Register.

In a meeting between MUHS Vice-Chancellor Lieutenant General Dr Madhuri Kanitkar and the Nashik district administration, it was decided to undertake a study to find out reasons for the low number of cases.

The team of 40 members started collecting blood samples from Thursday. As per protocol, the team will collect blood samples of 2,000 to 2,500 people, which will be sent to the virology laboratory in Dhule, where antibody and Elisa tests will be conducted. “The samples will be collected randomly from different areas of the district. Then we will check if herd immunity helped contain the cases,” said Gosavi.

“In fact, the rate of compliance of Covid-19 safety protocol is low in the city. Despite this, the infection rate is minimal in a city that has over 6 lakh people,” he added.