Pune, Thane will likely reach COVID-19 peak soon: Maha Health Minister

Mumbai: The Covid-19 case curve of Mumbai has plateaued, which in turn has brought down the city’s share of infections in Maharashtra to 24.31%. This is a significant drop from 54.82% on June 12, when the state reached its first 100,000 Covid-19 cases.

Currently, Thane and Pune have emerged as hot spots, with 20.60% (103,642) and 21.86% (109,988) of Maharashtra’s 503,084 cases in these two districts. Thane and Pune had 11% and 16% of the state’s cases on June 12.

State health minister Rajesh Tope said these two regions will reach their peak in the next two weeks, after which cases will dip. “We are expecting that either these two regions are already in the middle of the peak or will reach there within two weeks. Then we can expect a drop in the cases graph, as we have witnessed in Mumbai,” said Tope.

Mumbai’s share in Maharashtra’s Covid cases dropped gradually over a period of two months. On July 12, when the state had 254,427 infections, Mumbai’s share was 36.55% (92,988). This further came down to 33.34% (100,350) on July 18, when Maharashtra had 300,937 cases.

Officials from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) predict that by August-end, the city’s share of cases will drop even further. “It has been almost two months since we have noticed any sudden spike in the number of Covid-19 cases in Mumbai. The slums have recovered. Dharavi, which was our main concern due to the huge population, is recording cases below two digits on an average,” said Suresh Kakani, additional commissioner, BMC.

The number of active cases in the city is also lower than in Pune and Thane. On Saturday, the city had 19,914 active cases, while Thane reported 22,943 active patients. Pune, meanwhile, had 41,266 active cases —highest in the state.

“Due to their connectivity with satellite towns, numbers in these two regions have jumped. Detection of cases has also risen due to an increase in testing using antigen kits,” said Dr Pradeep Awate, state surveillance officer.

Dr Sanjay Pattiwar, a public health expert, said, “As Mumbai and MMR (Mumbai Metropolitan Region) are interconnected, we have to be careful before opening up transportation or local trains which can bring the second wave of pandemic. Just like in Mumbai, the curve is expected to come down in Pune and Thane also.”