PUNE: Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar on Saturday said there had been a 50% drop in active cases in the district but it was yet to see a clear easing of the third wave.
Ajit Pawar, also Pune's guardian minister, said the data from the next two to three weeks would be crucial in determining if the district had passed the third wave peak.
"Cases in Mumbai has dropped after the peak. But we shall wait and watch for the next three weeks to determine if the peak is over in the Pune district," he said after the district's weekly Covid review meeting.
In the January 20-26 week, the Pune district had 90,137 active cases. It dropped to 45,788 this week - a fall of 49%. Even the state registered an overall 42% decline in cases.
Ajit Pawar recommended a cautious approach, though, as many districts continued to have high weekly positivity rate (WPR).
The state's WPR this week was 17%, down 6% from the last week.
He said the task force was monitoring the number of deaths despite the drop in cases. "There has been a marginal rise in daily casualties. The experts are assessing the reasons," he said.
The health department's report for the Pune district this week stated that 95% of its Covid patients were in home isolation, 0.43% were in ICUs, 0.93% on oxygen beds and 0.02% on ventilator beds. Of the 45,788 active Covid-19 cases in the district, only 2,227 patients were in hospitals.
Last week, of the 90,509 cases, 2,864 were in hospitals. The oxygen requirement for the district continued to be a steady 90MT (during the second wave last April, the demand was at 350MT).
Nod to sports activities
Ajit Pawar said relaxations had been granted in the entire state to organise various sports activities, including horse and bullock cart races. "Local administrations have been empowered to take a call on organising these events at 25% crowd capacity," he said.
