At least one-third of all Covid-19 infections and one-fifth of Covid-19 deaths in the city since the beginning of the outbreak took place in April. The second wave of the pandemic in the city peaked on April 18 and has been stabilising since then. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) registered 1,50,175 patients in April, which is 35.8 per cent, more than one-third, of the total infected so far. Most of the infected did not require hospitalisation and recovered in home isolation. A total of 1,39,294 patients recovered and constitute 37.7 per cent of the total number of recovered patients till date. The civic administration registered 1,495 Covid-19 deaths in April, or 22 per cent of the total 6,797 Covid-19 deaths in the city till now. The city has been witnessing a decline in the case fatality rate, which reached 1.62 per cent by April 30, but it registered a mortality rate of one per cent the previous month, which is higher than the 0.67 per cent in March. The positivity rate was above 20 per cent throughout April. The cuty managed to double its bed capacity from 5,564 on April 1 to 11,873 on April 30. As of now, it has 2,128 beds without oxygen, 7,036 beds with oxygen, 622 ICU beds and 770 ventilator beds for treatment of patients and is further making efforts to increase capacity by setting up one more dedicated Covid hospital with more than 100 oxygen beds in Baner and Covid Care Centres with oxygen bed facility. “The state government is making all possible efforts to overcome the shortage of medical oxygen for the treatment of Covid patients and make it available as per requirement,” said Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar during the weekly review meeting of Covid situation in the city recently. Pawar directed the administration to create health infrastructure considering the requirement during the third wave. “Oxygen generation plants should be set up while the number of beds for treatment of critical patients should be increased. The stock of necessary medicine for treatment of patients should be procured in advance,” he said.
