4 min readPuneSep 12, 2020 11:11 AM IST
First published on: Sep 11, 2020 at 11:40 PM IST
Even as the Covid-19 pandemic shows no sign of slowing down despite the PMC putting up a strong fight to control its spread, more deaths of patients without co-morbidities than co-morbid patients were recorded within civic limits this week.
The PMC made a presentation of the Covid-19 situation to date, along with happenings in the week. The weekly report showed that a total of 2,668 deaths took place till September 10, an increase of 267 from 2,401 in the week ending on September 3.
Out of these 267 deaths in the last week, 137 were of patients without co-morbidities while 130 were of co-morbid patients. This is the first time, however, that the number of deaths of co-morbid patients were fewer than those without.
Till September 3, the PMC registered 1,591 deaths of co-morbid patients and 810 of those without co-morbidities, which makes up 2,401 deaths in total. By September 10, 1,721 co-morbid patients died and 947 without co-morbidities succumbed to the viral infection, making up 2,668 deaths in total.
An increase of 16.91 per cent has been registered in the death of patients without co-morbidities, while an of 8.17 per cent has been registered in the death of co-morbid patients over the past week. Deaths of patients without co-morbidities accounted for 33.73 per cent in total Covid-19 deaths till September 3, which has now increased to 35.45 per cent.
The total number of co-morbid patients and those aged above 50 are 28,302 out of a total of 1,13,832 patients till September 10. The co-morbid category has had an addition of 2,338 cases out of a total of 13,373 new cases in the week, which is 17.48 per cent of new infections.
The PMC, in an effort to reduce the mortality rate, is conducting a survey of people with co-morbidities, and has registered 3,68,991 so far.
The rise in the number of new patients by 13,373 in a week has taken the total cases till September 10 to 1,13,832 from 1,00,459. A total of 12,367 patients have recovered in the week, taking the total number of recovered patients to 94,452 till September 10.
Increased testing has helped the PMC in identifying more cases, and its positivity rate has increased to 22.12 per cent from 21.3 per cent a week ago. The percentage of active cases dropped from 15.9 to 14.68. The mortality rate has improved as it reduced from 2.39 per cent to 2.34 per cent, while the recovery rate has increased from 81.7 per cent to 82.97 per cent. The critical rate, however, has also increased from 5.54 per cent, which has led to critical patients struggling to find beds.
The shortage of beds for critical patients in the city has also been attributed to an increase in the number of patients from outside the district, who come for treatment to hospitals in the city. Divisional Commissioner Saurabh Rao recently said the administration had beds to accommodate patients estimated till September 21 and would further increase bed capacity to cope with future demand.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Friday warned officers of action if they were found to be negligent in their duty to contain Covid-19. “No Covid-19 patient should die due to lack of treatment. The senior officers should ensure that each patient gets treatment,” he said.
Mayor Murlidhar Mohol said there was a need for more oxygen and ventilator beds. “There is a need to increase the number of beds for critical patients in the city to meet the demand,” he said.
Amid the pandemic, he had written two songs in Marathi and Hindi to create awareness regarding the precautions one should take to prevent the contraction of coronavirus. (Representational) 
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