Solapur, Beed districts see increasing trend in daily new cases of infection
Pune, Satara, Sangli, Solapur, Beed, Ahmednagar and Sindhudurg are the seven districts in Maharashtra whose weekly Covid positivity rate continues to be higher than the state average, according to a new analysis.
The state’s average Covid positivity rate in the week of August 4-10 dropped to 3.05% compared to the earlier week (July 28- August 3), when it was at 3.51%.
However, Pune’s Covid positivity rate in the August 4-10 week was 5.81%, lower than the rate of earlier week, 6.38%, but still higher than the state average. Ahmednagar has also shown a drop and the Covid positivity rate from August 4 to 10 was 5.27%, as against the previous week’s 5.98% positivity rate.
Satara and Sangli also reported a downward trend and their Covid positivity rates in the week of August 4-10 were at 6.63% and 6.12%, compared to the positivity rates of earlier week, which were 7.59% and 6.47%, respectively.
The Covid positivity rate at Solapur for the week was at 3.4% while Beed was at 4.24%. All these seven districts have shown a Covid positivity rate higher than the state average.
Meanwhile, the Centre on Tuesday said that 37 districts were reporting an increasing trend in daily new Covid-19 cases during the last two weeks. In Maharashtra, Solapur and Beed districts have shown an increasing trend in average daily cases of coronavirus infection. According to the state analysis, there has been a similar increasing trend in daily new cases reported at Ahmednagar and Osmanabad districts
Till date, there are 1.82 lakh cases of Covid-19 in Solapur and 4,631 deaths. Dr Sanjay Deshmukh, assistant director (health) Pune region (Pune, Satara and Solapur districts), told The Indian Express that they have issued strict instructions to conduct maximum number of RT-PCR tests to detect Covid-19 in Solapur district vis-a-vis the Rapid Antigen tests.
Dr Deshmukh said there was a need to increase the ratio of RT-PCR to RAT tests to 70:30. “Presently RAT tests are being done in a large way,” he said.
Persons who are symptomatic but were still found negative after RAT tests need to be re-confirmed after an RT-PCR test, said Dr Deshmukh.
“We have issued instructions to step up contact tracing…,” Dr Deshmukh added. With the Covid positivity rate at 6 to 6.5%, the focus is also on stepping up vaccination. Of the 10.58 lakh doses administered in Solapur district, 7.83 lakh people have got the first dose while 2.67 lakh are fully vaccinated.
There is also a need to suppress the chain of transmission by wearing masks, maintaining physical distance and hand hygiene, said health officials.
Meanwhile, Dr Deshmukh also said that they are awaiting a large allocation of vaccine doses from the state government, adding that supply of vaccine doses has been inadequate. State Health Department officials, however, said that higher than usual allocation has been made to flood-affected districts in the state.
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