Pimpri-Chinchwad: Over two lakh residents beat Covid in 14 months, recovery rate remains high

Till date, at least 11,42,191 Covid-19 tests have been conducted of which 9,12,234 were negative, officials said. Till Friday evening,
Pimpri-Chinchwad had as many as 23,000 active cases, of which 15,000 cases are home quarantined and 7,000 are hospitalised, officials said.

PCMC additional health chief Pavan Salve said, “In the past one year, Pimpri-Chinchwad saw a rapid rise in cases in July, August and September. After that, cases started surging in the second half of February and since then, they have continued to rise. In April, Pimpri-Chinchwad registered the highest number of cases in several months. But we have also seen a large number of recoveries in this 14-month period…This means Covid-19 can be defeated only if people seek early treatment and do not delay it…Early detection is key to good recovery.”

According to the health department, the recovery rate is highest in the 0-12 years age group at 89 per cent, followed by the the 13-21 years age group at 88 per cent. Pimpri-Chinchwad has so far seen 3,258 Covid-19 deaths. Throughout the year, the death rate has hovered between 1.5 per cent and 1.75 per cent, officials said.

YCM Hospital dean Dr Rajendra Wable said, “The large number of recoveries only proves that Covid-19 can be defeated if people take early treatment. Delayed treatment has been the prime reason behind the large number of deaths.”

Dr Shrikrishna Joshi of Lokmanya Hospital said, “Many patients come to us five or even six days after testing positive or showing Covid-like symptoms. Several patients come to us when their saturation level starts falling. If patients seek treatment with doctors handling Covid patients for months, there is no reason why they can’t recover.”

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Dr Amol Holkunde of the PCMC-run Auto Cluster said, “We continue to see patients who are brought to the hospital in a very critical state. Some patients have died within hours of being brought to the hospital. This only reflects the delay in treatment sought by the patients…Many patients, especially co-morbid ones, believe nothing will happen to them and so, avoid going to hospital…But co-morbid patients deteriorate quickly as the virus load rises and they have weak immunity.”

The PCMC said that high recoveries is a sign of positive development in the face of surging cases.

“Till date, 2,00,633 residents who were infected with coronavirus have recovered. We have a good recovery rate of nearly 90 per cent. In Pune district, this was the highest recovery rate. Compared to the news of surging cases in the past few days, this is a positive development,” said PCMC commissioner Rajesh Patil.

He added, “…residents should remain alert and observe Covid-19 appropriate behaviour. They should strictly follow home isolation norms. Everyone who is infected with Covid-19 and is in home isolation gets a call from PCMC call centres. If people strictly observe the norms, it will help in containing the spread of virus. Residents should immediately seek treatment the moment they experience symptoms. It will help reduce the death rate and we will win the war against Covid-19,” he said.

The vaccination programme, which began on January 16, has inoculated 4,21,687 residents so far, the health department said.

Mayor Usha Dhore said the the PCMC was ready to purchase as many as 15 lakh vaccine doses. “We are ready to pay for the vaccine doses. The state government should give permission for this,” she said.

Pimpri-Chinchwad was not getting adequate number of doses and so, the vaccination programme of people over 45 years of age has been affected for the past few days, she added. “…the civic standing committee recently passed a resolution to purchase vaccine doses at our own expenditure. If the state government gives permission, we can directly make the purchase,” she said.