Pune: The graph of coronavirus in Pune city has not flattened its curve. Pune city on Friday reported over 900 cases taking the total count of COVID-19 in the city to 26,077. On the positive front, 609 patients recovered from the pandemic and were discharged on Friday.
Janata Vasahat, Pune’s largest slum which is situated at the foothills of Parvati, has seen an exponential rise in the number of coronavirus positive cases in July.
Janata Vasahat managed to stay away from the contagion due to the self-discipline. Till the beginning of mid-week of May, the area with a population of over 60,000 had reported just one coronavirus positive and the person had recovered and was discharged. Situated between a canal on one hand and Parvati hill on the other, the area does not possess many entry-exit points which limited the movement of its habitants during the spread. This helped the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) staff to implement social distancing.
Though all measures to curtail the spread of COVID-19 were implanted here, the area witnessed a rapid surge of the infection at the end of May. According to the numbers of PMC, the Janata Vasahat-Dattawadi area which had about 18 coronavirus positive cases on May 16, witnessed over 158 cases by May 31.
June also witnessed a slight increase in new cases in the area. Talking about July, Janata Vasahat has 300 coronavirus patients out of which 50 are reported within a week. 11 deaths have been reported from the area which is the highest death count among hotspots in Sinhagad Road belt. With a total of 300 cases in the pocket, the area has 160 active cases.
Talking to Sakal Times, local Corporator Shankar Pawar said, “There are currently 160 cases in Janata Vasahat the number is comparatively low than that of June and we are hoping that the area soon will be corona-free.”
“Due to complexed structure of the densely populated area it is difficult to follow the social distancing but we are continuously urging the residents to practice all the norms,” he added.
