Rural Pune hot spots put on alert

PUNE: On the evening of May 10, an autorickshaw with a loudspeaker rode through Bhigwan village making an announcement that the residents knew was coming: a complete lockdown starting from midnight of May 12. Bhigwan, a business hub in Indapur tehsil located on Pune-Solapur highway, and known for its fish market, had just come out of a Janta curfew, which was far stricter than the curbs imposed by the state government on April 15. In this Janta curfew, only medical shops were permitted to open.

Bhigwan is among the 107 villages of Pune district that were recently put on a first-of-its-kind list brought out by Rajesh Deshmukh, Pune district collector, on May 7. The list categorised the hot spots as “alert” (caseload was high and not reducing) and “high alert” (caseload was high and increasing). Bhigwan was among the former and at least 159 villages and/or municipal councils made it to the latter. On May 11, Pune district recorded 7,714 new Covid cases and almost 48% came from villages and municipal councils.

Though the state has imposed strict curbs, at least four of the 15 tehsils in Pune (Baramati, Bhor, Maval and Indapur) have imposed week-long complete lockdowns last week.

“The number of cases has been going down in Pune district. In Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and in PimpriChinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) limits, cases have reduced. But in rural parts, the number of cases is high. So, containment planning has been done in rural areas. Aggressive testing is going on and emphasis has been given on early detection and isolation. With these measures, cases will come in control,” said Pune divisional commissioner Saurabh Rao.

As cases began to surge starting February in Maharashtra — it remained the most affected state in the country for most of March and April — the spread of Covid-19 hit both densely populated urban centres and rural parts which have little access to healthcare infrastructure. However, even as cases seem to have come under control in urban centres like Mumbai, positivity rate in rural parts of the state have shot up in the past few weeks. For instance, rural Pune reported a test positivity rate of 28.07% while PMC, the district’s urban centre, reported 18.18% in the week of May 3-9.

PMC, which has the highest number of confirmed cases in the district, started to show a downward trend of positive cases from the third week of April. In the first 12 days of May, 47,542 new positive cases were recorded in rural Pune; by comparison, 32,546 new cases were recorded in PMC and 26,303 new cases recorded in PCMC. Even if we were to take recoveries into account, out of 88,851 active cases in the district on May 12, PMC recorded 27,014, PCMC recorded 20,869, while rural areas recorded 39,529.

Pandurang Salavade, sarpanch (village head) of Dorlewadi village in Baramati tehsil (an “alert” village), expressed shock at the severity of the second wave. “There have been 185 cases in Dorlewadi [till date]. During the first wave, we registered 30-35 cases in the village. There were no deaths. This time, there have been 12 deaths, all in May. The entire village is terrified and is seriously following lockdown rules,” he said.

Shubhangi Nale is an ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) member in Dorlewadi. One of the tasks assigned to her at the start of the pandemic was to survey 50 families every day to detect the onset of Covid-19 infection. She was also tasked to monitor symptoms of Covid patients in home isolation and, since the beginning of this year, to spread awareness about the vaccination drive. Nale said that last year she did not fear for her life, but this time around, the speed at which the infection has spread is terrifying to her.

“I have been working as Asha worker since 2009 and it is a completely different experience working in Covid pandemic. I was not scared of working last year. This time I am afraid of the way the virus is spreading. I can’t work from home. I have to go and interact with people. Most of the time we don’t even know if the other person has contracted the virus. I am taking more precaution this time,” Nale said.

The health infrastructure in rural parts is under pressure to accommodate the caseload in the second wave. There are 56 hospitals and Covid Care Centres with 2,293 beds (1,190 oxygen beds, 137 ventilator beds), which serve all 14 municipal councils in the district; 138 hospitals with 5,911 beds (1,966 oxygen beds, 188 ventilators beds) must suffice for 1,866 smaller villages. But this isn’t evenly available.

The administration has been trying to increase bed capacity and hire more medical professionals to improve quality of treatment. “Our primary aim is early detection and treatment. With this target, we have shown results. We hired additional medical personnel, continued the vaccination drive. There is a plan to build a paediatric hospital in each tehsil. Through CSR, the work to make oxygen plants operational has started at 17 places,” said Ayush Prasad, CEO, zilla parishad Pune.

Oxygen Express arrives at Pune on Wednesday.