Five districts have 63% of state’s active cases

The state has 55,454 active cases. Pune has 12,558 active cases, Solapur 4,580, Satara 6,658, Sangli 5,210 and Ahmednagar 5,709

MUMBAI: Five districts — Pune, Solapur, Satara, Sangli and Ahmednagar — have been contributing the highest daily Covid-19 caseload in Maharashtra. Around 63% of the total active cases in the state are in these districts, with Pune topping the list with 12,558 active cases.

State health officials said each district has been showing a distinct pattern of the spread. “There is no specific answer to why the numbers are not declining in these five districts,” said Dr Subhash Salunkhe, technical advisor to the state on Covid-19. “There are multiple and varied reasons. What is clear is that there is still a susceptible population in these districts which is getting infected,” he said.

According to Salunkhe, districts in Maharashtra are vast and are divided into distinct areas like rural, urban and periurban. “The infection is now largely spreading in the rural population. Also, due to relaxations in activities, cases have been on the rise,” he said.

Maharashtra has recorded over 6.4 million Covid-19 cases and over 135,500 deaths till date. Currently, the state has 55,454 active cases. Of these, Solapur has 4,580, Satara 6,658, Sangli 5,210 and Ahmednagar has 5,709 active cases.

Satara district health officials said rise in home isolation has led to a spurt in positive cases as people do not follow isolation rules and, in turn, infect others in the family and community.

According to a report drafted by health officials earlier this week, around 60% of positive patients in the district have been under home isolation and the remaining are in institutional isolation. At least 50 villages in Satara are reporting more than 20 cases every day for the past two weeks. And despite this, strict containment rules are not being implemented.

“It has become difficult to get people to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour,” said Dr Radhakrishna Pawar, district health officer of Satara. “We have asked all talukas to increase institutional isolation,” he said.

Solapur district, on the other hand, has compulsory institutional isolation. The surge in Covid cases has been driven by increasing number of infections among farmers. Most cases are being recorded in three talukas — Pandharpur, Malshiras and Madha. “These talukas have large families of farmers who permanently live in shelters on their farms. We have started getting many positive cases among them,” said Dr Shitalkumar Jadhav, district health officer of Solapur. “Over the past 10 days, we have reduced home isolation to almost zero. But the virus is now infecting rural population,” he said.

In Pune, too, a higher number of cases have been recorded from Pune rural. In Ahmednagar and Sangli, health officials observed that people are crowding at events and in marketplaces, leading to continuous rise in cases.

EACH DISTRICT IS SHOWING A DISTINCT PATTERN OF THE SPREAD: HEALTH OFFICIALS

SATISH BATE/HT PHOTO Retail shop and shopping mall employees wait to get inoculated, outside Wadia Hospital, Parel on Friday.