This story is from July 31, 2020

Covid-19: Three out of five districts with most active cases are in Maharashtra

Pune district topped in active cases in the country on Thursday, followed by Bengaluru (Urban). Third and fourth positions were occupied by Thane and Mumbai—which meant three Maharashtra districts were among the top five. Chennai, inching toward the 1-lakh tally, had the fifth highest active cases.
Covid-19: Three out of five districts with most active cases are in Maharashtra
Picture used for representational purpose only
MUMBAI: Pune district topped in active cases in the country on Thursday, followed by Bengaluru (Urban). Third and fourth positions were occupied by Thane and Mumbai—which meant three Maharashtra districts were among the top five. Chennai, inching toward the 1-lakh tally, had the fifth highest active cases.
Of the 5,43,113 active cases in India, Pune district alone accounts for almost 9% (48,815), which means nearly one of every 10 infected Indians is currently in Pune.
Covid-19 positive patients under treatment are categorised as active cases and become an important marker to gauge the burden on healthcare infrastructure.
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Bengaluru (Urban) had 36,523 active cases on Thursday, while Thane and Mumbai had 31,923 and 20,158 cases respectively. Mumbai’s active case load started showing a decline in mid-July. However, it has nearly double the active cases than Delhi, which ranks seventh with a tally of 10,743.
The analysis also shows Andhra Pradesh is the most affected state after Maharashtra: it has four districts in the top 10. Delhi’s tally is the total of cases across 11 districts of the capital territory.
Two of every 10 active cases in the state are now in Pune
Pune district, which had seen a declining trend in early June, started to add a sizeable number of fresh infections over the past few weeks. Currently, 33% of Maharashtra’s active cases (1,48,150) are from Pune. The rapid spread in Thane district and its nine corporations – which has led to the pandemic’s epicentre shifting out of Mumbai – has meant that it currently accounts for 22.2% of the active caseload in the state – two of every 10 in the state – and 6.2% of the total active in India.

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Dr Pradeep Awate, Maharashtra’s surveillance officer, said the mobility and connectivity between the big cities and their satellite areas is responsible for the bulk of infections being reported from Thane and Pune. In fact, the movement of people across porous state borders is cited as the reason for cases spiking in Andhra Pradesh too. The flow of traffic between Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra remains largely unrestricted.
Bengaluru Urban, which crossed the 1,000-mark for Covid deaths on Thursday, has rapidly added cases and mortalities in the past 30 days. Fatalities in the district increased more than 900% at a rate of around 31 per day, with over 50 deaths on several days in July. In terms of cases, when the month began, the number was under 5,000 but rose and touched 10,000 in six days. In the next eight days, the tally doubled to 20,969. On Thursday, the city had touched 53,324 cases. Rapid multiplication of cases has stretched the city’s health infrastructure; there are several stories of bed shortage.
Pune, between July 14 and July 27, also added the highest number of new cases in the country. Of the total 5,74,858 cases added in these two weeks, 37,950 were from Pune district alone. The third highest addition in those two weeks was reported from Thane district which added 24,012 cases.
Senior officials said the surge in cases in Pune and Thane district has been a concern for the state as well as the Centre. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray travelled to Pune on Thursday for a review of the situation there. His visit came a day after public health minister Rajesh Tope also undertook a review of the situation in the district. “Cases in Pune district is likely to see a surge for the next 8-10 days before starting to stabilize. There is a general observation that when 20-25% population are infected, then the cases begin to drop,” Tope said.
He attributed the big jump in cases to increased usage of rapid antigen testing. Incidentally, Pune district has used the highest antigen kits, over 70,000.
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