NASHIK: There is a rapid spike in new Covid-19 cases in Nashik city in the last 8-10 days. The daily count has gone up above 800. Considering this administration has to impose restrictions. It has come to light citizens are largely responsible for this. It is also being stated that pending test results are pushing the Covid-19 tally up. There is a three-fold rise in new patients in the last two weeks.
The number of active patients was around 1,000 in the first week of this month. However, it has reached around 5500 in the last 13 days. The epidemic has spread on large scale due to crowd at market places in the last week of February and the first week of March, weddings, political programs, rush at tourist spots and gathering at government events.
Following an appeal by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to fight the Covid epidemic under the I am responsible campaign, the government had appealed to the people to wear a mask, to use sanitiser and to maintain social distancing norm. However, it is being seen that the epidemic is spreading due to the carelessness of the people.
The administration has allowed the patients to stay under home quarantine, but it has been found that those who are under home quarantine are becoming super spreaders. Many patients are moving freely outside and putting the lives of their family members, relatives and friends at risk. On the other, the careless attitude of Nashik Municipal Corporation is also behind this.
The swab samples of most suspect patents in the city are being sent to a laboratory at Aurangabad. As the machine here became non-functional, the test reports were delayed for 4-5 days. After the number of test report gone up over 2000, NMC has started to send the swab samples collected from municipal hospitals to Haffkine Institute in Mumbai.
It was also informed that some swab samples were being sent to the district civil hospital. However, it has still not been successful in bringing down the number of pending test reports below 1,000. Last year, NMC had conducted a test of a total of 23 persons who had got in touch with the positive patient. Though there is no change in its stance, the number of pending reports has gone up over 1500.
Pending reports within NMC limit
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March 7, 2021 – 1933
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March 9, 2021 – 2314
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March 12, 2021- 1372
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March 8, 2021 – 2223
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March 11, 2021 – 1923
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March 13, 2021 – 1579