With 16 cases, Pune has highest number of coronavirus patients

PUNE: On Sunday, a resident of Pimpri-Chinchwad tested positive for coronavirus (Covid-19) taking the total number of cases in Pune district, including areas under the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), to 16, district collector Naval Kishore Ram said. With this the district has the highest number of coronavirus cases in the state.

The patient, according to the civic administration, returned from Japan and underwent tests on Saturday.

The National Institute of

Virology (NIV), Pune, on Sunday confirmed that he tested positive. The 37-year-old male is reported to be stable, Ram said.

Of the five persons, who tested positive in Pimpri-Chinchwad late on Saturday, four came in contact with a member of a group of 40 people, who had returned from Dubai on March 1.

Pune’s “zero patients”, a couple, were part of that group. The fifth positive case reported in PCMC on Saturday is that of a 21-year-old man who has a recent travel history, including Thailand. The driver of the taxi that brought the Dubai-returned couple from Mumbai to Pune is the only other case that was reported last week.

“Family members of the Dubai-returned group are infected. The person who returned from Thailand was part of a 93-member group. We are tracking all those people who he may have come in contact with,” Ram said.

Schools, colleges, public parks, cinema theatres, and gymnasiums in Pune are shut and shopping malls to remain closed till March 31.

Ram said that only those stores selling medicines, food or vegetables inside the shopping malls will be allowed to remain open.