Premium
This is an archive article published on March 7, 2021

Covid-19 patients prefer home isolation over hospital stay, positivity rate jumps to 20%

PCMC Additional Health chief Dr Pavan Salve Sunday said by Saturday, Pimpri-Chinchwad had 4,616 active cases. “Of these 1,265 are admitted to hospitals and 3,350 are in home isolation,” he said.

PCMC newsTHE PCMC has decided to intensify its drive against property tax defaulters, especially those who owe more than Rs 25 lakh dues to the civic body (File)

Even as active cases surge in Pimpri-Chinchwad, Covid-19 patients seem to be favouring home isolation, despite the fact there are an adequate number of vacant beds available in civic and private hospitals. As many as 70 per cent of Covid-19 patients in Pimpri-Chinchwad are in home isolation.

PCMC Additional Health chief Dr Pavan Salve Sunday said by Saturday, Pimpri-Chinchwad had 4,616 active cases. “Of these 1,265 are admitted to hospitals and 3,350 are in home isolation,” he said.

Patients with mild symptoms are allowed home isolation. Those with severe symptoms are admitted to hospital. “However, patients with co-morbidities, even if they have mild symptoms, are urged to get admitted to hospitals as a precautionary measure,” Dr Salve said.

Story continues below this ad

He said there are adequate beds available in PCMC hospitals as well in private hospitals. “Private hospitals, which had fewer patients last month, have started admitted a number of Covid patients again. As of now, we have no shortage of beds for them. We are urging patients, even those with mild symptoms, to get admitted to hospitals, but they are favouring home isolation,” he said.

After a dip, which started in November and lasted till the first week of February, Covid-19 cases have been surging. The rise has been maximum from February 27 to March 6, when over 3,000 positive cases were detected. “In January, we had a total of 3,697 cases. But in the last 7-8 days, cases have risen rapidly,” said Dr Salve.

With a rise in Covid cases, the positivity rate has also risen. “The positivity rate in November had gone down to 7 per cent. Now it is between 18-20 per cent,” said Dr Salve. The PCMC, which till over a week ago was conducting 1,800-2,000 tests daily, has now increased the tests to 2,500 per day. On Saturday, 573 cases were registered, which put the positivity rate at over 20 per cent, officials said.

📣 JOIN NOW 📣: The Express Explained Telegram Channel

Meanwhile, the PCMC health department has urged private hospitals to keep it updated about the details of TB patients undergoing treatment or had undergone treatment with it. “If TB patients are found in hospitals in the city, it is mandatory to provide information to the government. Private hospitals, pathology labs, radiologists should register the names of TB patients who come to them and provide information to the civic body. If they don’t do so, criminal complaints will be lodged against them,” said Dr Salve.

Story continues below this ad

– Stay updated with the latest Pune news. Follow Express Pune on Twitter here and on Facebook here. You can also join our Express Pune Telegram channel here.

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories

Latest Comment
Post Comment
Read Comments
Advertisement
Loading Taboola...
Advertisement