Even though daily COVID 19 cases are falling, as many as 25 districts have high positivity rate against the weekly state average of 17.26% as on February 1 against 22 districts as on January 26. The Public Health Department in its presentation to the state cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray here on Wednesday made a strong case for further stepping up testing and vaccination in these districts in addition to implementation of corona containment measures.
The naxal infested Gadchiroli district tops the list with positivity rate of 46.18% followed by Nagpur 40.86%, Washim 36.88%, Aurangabad 34.14%, Nashik 34.05%, Pune 33.84%, Wardha30.10%, Amravati 30.01%, Nandurbar 29.61%, Akola 29.31%, Sangli 27.87%, Chandrapur 27.38%, Yavatmal 27.05%, Latur 23.26%, Satara 23.15%, Nanded 21.95%, Hingli 21.89%, Kolhapur 21.74%, Gondia 21.49%, Solapur 20.15%, Bhandara 19.59%, Parbhani 19.04%, Osmanabad 18.54%, Jalgaon 17.92% and Sindhudurg 17.39%.
Today’s presentation came days after the Public Health Minister Rajesh Tope said that the peak of the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic is over in the state adding that the hospitalization is low compared to first and second wave. He noted that nearly 95 per cent beds are vacant. He admitted that the number of COVID-19 patients is increasing in Nashik, Nagpur, Pune and Aurangabad but it is falling in Mumbai, Thane, Raigad and Palghar districts. The patients from rural areas recover in a week.
Further, the department said of the total 1,91,524 active patients on February 1, 1,48,554 were from Pune, Nagpur, Nashik, Thane, Ahmednagar, Mumbai, Aurangabad, Satara, Solapur and Raigad while 28,648 patients were from the remaining districts.
Moreover, the department has also expressed concern over the slow of pace of vaccination as daily administration of COVID 19 vaccine doses now below 5 lakh many days against the state’s 7 to 17 lakh doses given earlier.