Pune city has topped the country in terms of the number of active covid cases. Compared to some of the major cities, Pune is not far ahead in terms of the number of active cases which has raised serious questions on the administration’s capacity to handle the situation.

Despite Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and the district corporation claiming to test most number of tests per million and further ramping up the testing capacity since the past one month, city has failed to break the chain. The district administration is now accepting loopholes in its strategy to contain the spread.

As of August 17, Pune has 39424 active cases, closely followed by Bengaluru which has 34,584 active cases, while Mumbai, which was considered as the worst hit city in the country, now has only 17,704 active cases; Delhi, country’s capital which has four civic bodies, has only 15,066 active cases while Chennai has 12,003 active cases. Due to data discrepancy, district health office for Pune reports 26,719 active cases, out of which 15,673 are in hospital isolation while 11,046 are in home isolation. Despite different agencies reporting different numbers, the fact remains that Pune district’s active cases are higher than most metro cities in the country.

Admitting to the loopholes in strategy to contain the spread of the virus, divisional commissioner Saurabh Rao said, “It is true that we have the highest number of progressive positives and also active cases. The sero survey clearly shows that there is high prevalence and since we are doing high testing we are able to identify and isolate patients quickly. Further strategy is going to remain the same, aggressive testing and focusing on super spreaders. Super spreaders would include those who constantly come in and out of the containment zones, which includes those working in essential services, vegetable vendors, milkmen, nurses and sanitation workers. The economy is not opening up and it is not possible for the administration, including the police, to behave in a ruthless manner. Also, they are the most affected due to the lockdown economically, it would not be possible to keep people locked inside the containment zones anymore. We are focusing on comorbid patients and senior citizens for which we have dedicated teams which will help keep check on the case fatality rate.”

Rao said, “However, it is also true that despite high testing we are unable to arrest the spread. There are two possible reasons, one people are not following the social distancing norms, not wearing masks or following respiratory and hand hygiene and the second is containment. We would accept it that there is some lethargy in containing the containment zones. Because in an ideal case, a containment zone should be free of the virus in the next 14 days. People are jumping over the barricades, but forcing them to stay inside since the past five months is not possible unless we are ruthless.”

On August 17, PMC announced its latest list of containment zones which included 66 areas which would be barricaded.

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