Slight decline in active Covid-19 cases in 17 districts across Maharashtra

Dr Shashank Joshi, member of Maharashtra task force on Covid-19, told The Indian Express, “Maharashtra has upscaled the number of tests and for the first time, there are signs that we may just bend the curve. We are conducting 1.5 lakh tests every day and there is better management of micro-containment strategies. We are also aggressively looking at citizens’ responsibility to prevent spread of infection and adopt safety measures like wearing masks and avoiding crowds.”

Washim, Yavatmal, Bhandara, Parbhani, Beed, Dhule, Nandurbar, Ahmednagar and Jalgaon are among other districts where active cases have declined.

According to Dr Awate, containment strategies, contact tracing and increasing sero-positivity also indicate that herd immunity is likely to play a role in the declining trend. “We have observed this trend for the past fortnight and it will take another two weeks’ time to arrive at some kind of interpretation if the trend is sustained,” he said.

Earlier during the muted Ganpati festival celebrations, crowds had gathered at some places following which hospitals had reported a spike in cases. According to authorities at several hospitals, there has been a slight decline in new infections but it is still a case of “wait and watch”.

In Pune, at least 6.15 lakh samples have been collected at Covid care centres, private laboratories and private hospitals by rapid antigen tests till date and at least 1.42 lakh people have tested positive, according to PMC health chief Ramchandra Hankare. There has been a slight decline as on Monday with less than 1,000 cases (779 tested positive for the infection). On September 20, there were 1,700 new cases that had tested positive. At least 3,212 samples were tested on Monday.

‘Open up parks, gardens in PMC limits’

Sudhir Mehta, coordinator of Pune platform for Covid-19 response, has urged the city administration to consider opening parks and gardens with proper precautionary measures. “We can no longer keep such places shut as open spaces have proven to have smaller spread. Parks and gardens can be good, safe places provided enough physical distancing is maintained and masks are worn. There is a need to increase our overall fitness levels, especially for children who have been at home for a long time,” Mehta said.

Declining cases

District | September 20 | September 27

Pune         74,768            58,932

Mumbai   27,787      26,716

Sangli     10,767         9,970

Ratnagiri  2,862      2,602

Nagpur    19,100     16,619