Coronavirus In Pune / 3,044 New COVID-19 Cases Found, Tally Jumps To 72,782; Death Toll At 1,737

A health department official said in Pune district reported 3,044 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, taking its count to 72,782 on Monday.

He said the death toll rose to 1,737 with 38 more patients succumbing to the infection in the western Maharashtra district.

Also, 896 patients were discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours, the official said.

"Of the 3,044 cases, 1,820 were reported from Pune Municipal Corporation limits (the city), which now has 46,786 cases. With 981 cases, the tally in Pimpri-Chinchwad rose to 17,641," he said.

The number of positive cases in rural and Pune Cantonment Board areas increased to 8,355, he said.

Meanwhile, the positivity rate of COVID-19 cases in Pune district was above 20 per cent and the challenge was to bring it below 10 per cent, said Officer on Special Duty Saurabh Rao on Monday.

He said the containment strategy for the outbreak will be redefined in order to achieve this reduction in positivity rate.

"The positivity rate of Pune district is between 23-25 per cent over the last few days. The ICMR expects that the positivity ratio of COVID cases should be below 10 percent and this is a challenge for us," he said.

Pune district comprises Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad municipal limits, and rural and cantonment areas.

The high positivity rate is a common phenomenon for other cities like Mumbai and its metropolitan region, Thane, Hyderabad and Bengaluru as well, he added.

"Since this is a challenge, we will have to redefine the containment strategy in order to slow downthe spread of the virus. We have identified small and big interventions and we will be applying it while redefining the containment strategy," Rao said.

Collector Naval Kishore Ram said the positivity rate was high since more high-risk contacts were being tested.

Meanwhile, Rao said three "jumbo facilities" will be set up, each with 800 beds that would include 200 ICU ones, here.

One will be operational at College of Engineering Pune campus, while the process of finalising the other two was in the last phase, he said.

"There are plans to bring nursing homes in Pune under the COVID network. Today we had a meeting with doctors and nurses associations on this," he added.