PCMC posts record Covid deaths and positive cases in April
According to PCMC health department, in the 30-day period in April, between 2,000-3,000 Covid positive cases have been registered daily. The cases also crossed the 3000-mark for the first time during the time taking the total positive figure for April at 70,285.
Their's is one of the many tragedies unfolding in India's national capital where the infrastructure is unable to cope with the daily number of cases and fatalities. (Representational image)
THE month of April has broken the Covid-19 record of both number of patients and deaths for a single month in Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC). As many as 70,285 positive cases and 1,488 deaths were registered in April. Both the figures were highest for any month since the first positive case was registered in March 2020 and first death in April 2020.
According to PCMC health department, in the 30-day period in April, between 2,000-3,000 Covid positive cases have been registered daily. The cases also crossed the 3000-mark for the first time during the time taking the total positive figure for April at 70,285. If in March, around 34,000 postive cases were registered, it doubled in April.
You have exhausted your monthly limit of free stories.
Read more stories for free with an Express account.
So far, Pimpri-Chinchwad has registered 2,12,460 positive cases. Among these, 43 per cent are in the age group of 22-39 years which is the highest in all age groups. Of the total positive cases, 1,87,936 citizens have recovered. Percentage wise 60 per cent of the men and 40 per cent women have been detected positive so far.
Similarly, the figure of 484 Covid-19 deaths have been three times more than what was recorded as the highest figure in August 2020.
In April 2021, as many as 1,488 deaths have been registered in various civic and private hospitals in the industrial city.
“Of these, 913 deaths are of citizens living in Pimpri-Chinchwad while 575 deaths are of citizens living outside PCMC limits,” said Dr Anil Roy, PCMC health chief. He also added that the deaths were highest among 60-plus age category.
“These age groups (60+ & 70+) are high-risk groups. Most of them suffer from co-morbidities and age related ailments. When they get infected, their deterioration happens quickly. But it is not necessary that all of them are affected severely. There are scores of cases where citizens above the age of 80 and 90 have recovered,” he said.
Story continues below this ad
On deaths during the first wave and second wave, Dr Roy said: “In the first wave, we used to have less than 40 deaths every day. But in April, we had anything between 80-90 deaths every day or more at times.”
Dr Aniket Lathi, one of the doctors at YCM hospital, said: “In the second wave, Covid is affecting all age groups. We are also witnessing deaths of youngsters which was not the case in the first wave. We believe if vaccinations of youngsters take place, the cases and death count will come down. Even the first dose for the youngsters will help protect them. Therefore, youngsters should get vaccinated at the first opportunity.”
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
