Thane’s recovery rate 89%; doubling rate up to 90 days
THANE: In the past month, the Covid-19 situation in Thane city has seen a marked improvement. The city, which had a doubling rate of 24 days in July, now has a doubling rate of 90 days. The recovery rate has also increased to 89%, which the Thane civic commissioner claimed is the highest in Thane district.
The number of new cases has decreased over the past week. Among the 22,934 positive cases within Thane city, 20,299 have recovered so far. There have been 729 Covid deaths so far, and currently, there are 1,906 active cases in Thane city.
According to statistics provided by the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC), around midjuly, Thane city saw a spike in positive cases with 400-417 new cases reported daily. However, within a month, the figures have halved to 200 to 250 cases daily in the past week. The citywide lockdown implemented from July 2 to 19 helped to bring down the number of positive cases.
Dr Vipin Sharma, TMC commissioner, said, “At 89% recovery rate, we are the highest within Thane district. This has been possible due to a specific discharge protocol set up by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) which we follow apart from other measures. As per the discharge protocol, we ensure that every patient is monitored for 15 days after being discharged. Moreover, we ensure that there are no symptomatic patients at home before we discharge the recovered ones.”
Vishwanath Kelkar, civic health officer, said, “We have a protocol wherein each positive case is contacted within 15 minutes of the test report, and the contact tracing process begins immediately.”
The ‘Test, Track, Trace, Treat and Isolate’ protocol is executed by over 600 individuals working on the ground level.
“We have around 150 teams only for conducting containment screenings and surveillance. The results are updated in real-time. To date, we have screened over 16 lakh residents of Thane. We have another team of 150 who are focused on testing; this includes identifying those who require testing, getting them tested, and based on the results, assigning them to home or institutional quarantine, or moving them to a Covid treatment centre,” said Sharma.
Another team of 150 goes doorto-door to check on those who are quarantining at home. Based on their situation, Covid staff suggests medical care or further assistance. A 150-member team is on tele-calling systems to keep a check on those in home quarantine as well as the recovered patients.
“These are methods to ensure no one is left out, and any critical patient is identified immediately,” said Sharma.
These teams include staff from Thane Municipal Transport (TMT), various government departments, contractual staff from TMC, teachers, volunteers from social organisations and members of political parties.
FEWER CASES IN SLUMS, HIGH-RISES A CONCERN The doubling rate in Ghodbunder area, which houses some upscale residential complexes, is now 30 days, though the civic body is still concerned about the case count. The corporation claimed that since the lockdown was eased, cases have increased in highrises, as opposed to slums.
“Soon after the unlock mission was announced in June, those in high-rises started stepping out. This led to an increase in the number of cases. As exposure began at a later stage, the spread of infection increased in these areas. With the help of our survey and efforts based on the Dharavi model, we managed to bring down the cases in high-rises as well,” said Sharma.
As of now, Naupada and Kopri ward have the highest number of cases but Majiwada-manpada ward witnessed a spike in cases in the first week of August. Anuradha Babar, assistant commissioner, TMC, said, “Initially, we focused on institutional quarantine of positive cases and highrisk contacts from slums. We are following the same plan in highrises now.”
MORE VACANT BEDS AT COVID CENTRES
With fewer positive cases reported and only 1,900 active cases within the TMC jurisdiction, 1,083 normal and 134 ICU beds are vacant. The dedicated Covid facilities are now being opened up for other municipal corporations. Around 20% occupancy of the Thane civic body’s Covid beds is from neighbouring areas now.
This has not stopped the civic body from increasing its bed capacity. In the past week, 150 ICU beds were added at Global Hospital and 10 beds with ventilators have been included across Thane city.