Pune: Undeterred by the rising number of COVID-19 cases reported from Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad cities and the rural areas of Pune district, the Municipal Corporations and District administration has decided to continue their aggressive testing strategy. As a part of this strategy, the civic and district administration will allocate a ‘testing quota’ for medical shop employees, vegetable and fruits vendors and street vendors to curb the spread and break the chain of coronavirus infections.
The new containment strategy was announced by Saurabh Rao, Special Officer at Divisional Commissioner Office in presence of District Collector Naval Kishor Ram, Pune Municipal Commissioner Vikram Kumar, Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar and Joint Commissioner of Pune Police Dr Ravindra Shisve.
Rao said, “The daily tests being conducted in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad city areas and also in the rural areas of the district are among the highest in the country. For example, the Pune Municipal Corporation has done 22800 tests in the week of June 25 to July 1; about 25,000 tests in the week of July 2 to 8; about 32000 tests from July 9 to 15 and 37,000 tests in July 16 to 23. If we consider the latest statistics of July 16 to 23 week, out of total 37,339 tests, around 27 per cent that is 10,152 positive patients were identified.”
“The 10-day strict lockdown implemented from July 14 to 23 in the city has achieved its purpose. It has benefited us to bring the patients in our network and to make necessary arrangements for treatment and providing other healthcare facilities to them. The contact tracing and recovery rate has also increased due to increased testing as it gives more time to the patient and administration for taking precautionary measures,” Rao said.
“We have consciously adopted the aggressive testing strategy. Even though the number of COVID cases are on rise, they will start to decline after a few days. If shopkeepers, vendors, traders are tested in large numbers, the coronavirus can be contained effectively. Hence we have allocated a daily quota for them,” Rao clarified.
COVID-19 ACTIVE CASES AS OF JULY 22
