Pune: 41% rise in new Covid cases, dist tops state chart

Pune has seen a 41 per cent increase in new Covid infections as compared to the last week and now tops the districts in Maharashtra with the highest number of cases. “The trend of rising cases was first seen in Mumbai, Thane, and Raigad and these districts are now showing a declining trend,” Maharashtra surveillance officer Dr Pradeep Awate said.

Across Maharashtra, there has been a 17 per cent decrease in Covid infections as compared to the previous week. In Mumbai, the caseload has dipped to less than 1,000 new infections in the last three to four days, whereas in Pune, there have been approximately 800-830 cases daily. Dr Sanjeev Wavare, assistant medical chief, Pune Municipal Corporation, said there was a likelihood that cases would rise till the end of the month and then start peaking.

In the June 14-20 week, Pune had 2,157 new Covid infections which rose to 3,583 in the June 21-27 week, according to a state health department report. According to the July 3 state report, there were 22,485 active cases in Maharashtra. According to the Pune district health department report, there are 5,063 active cases in Pune district, including corporations and Cantonment areas.

Dr Amit Dravid, infectious diseases consultant at Noble hospital, said the dominant variant was BA.2 and BA.2.38. They were picking up some samples of BA.2.75 which also has the potential to infect lungs. “We need to improve the uptake on booster dose vaccination,” Dr Dravid said.