Pune Municipal Corporation areas' COVID-19 recovery rate crosses 80%

Pune: Even as it grapples with over 1,000 new cases of coronavirus infection every day, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has a sliver of good news in its fight against the pandemic, as the recovery rate among Covid-19 patients in the city has crossed 80 per cent.

The recovery rate has reached 80.48 per cent in PMC areas, inching closer to the 81.32 per cent recovery rate in Mumbai, though Pune has a higher rate of active cases than the state capital. The percentage of active patients in PMC areas is 17.11, while it is 13.03 per cent in Mumbai, 23.57 per cent in state and 21.94 per cent nationally.

“The recovery percentage of PMC has crossed 80,” said Additional Municipal Commissioner Rubal Agarwal on Thursday.

As on August 26, the PMC had registered a total of 87,317 patients while 70,269 have recovered so far. There are 14,940 active patients while 2,108 have succumbed to the viral infection till now.

The mortality rate of PMC is 2.41 per cent, lower than the 5.43 percent of Mumbai and 3.24 per cent in state, but still higher than the national average of 1.84 percent. But the percentage of critical patients — 5.44 — continues to be a source of concern for the civic administration.

In a bid to ensure enough beds for Covid-19 patients, the civic body recently set up a 800-bed jumbo facility on the College of Engineering Pune (CoEP) ground in Shivajinagar and a 314-bed facility in a civic building in Baner.

The PMC has also allowed patients with no symptoms or mild symptoms to be in home isolation. On August 26, more than half of the total number of active patients, 7,946, opted for home isolation,.

The civic body is also taking steps to identify co-morbid patients, who are in the high-risk category and are much more suspcetible to the infection. Of the total 2,108 Covid-19 deaths in the civic jurisdiction, 1,523 have been of co-morbid patients.

Currently, there are 66 containment zones in PMC areas, which were reduced from 75 in the first half of the August. The last list of containment zones was declared on August 17.