The DC said in the last two months, mortality rate has gone down considerably among infected patients and hoped that in the next few weeks, it will see further improvement.

Pune is well-equipped to defeat Covid-19, said Rajesh Deshmukh, who took over as the new district collector on Wednesday, and added that he will continue with the various measures taken by his predecessor in the fight against the pandemic.

“It’s true that Pune has the highest count of Covid-19 cases. But it’s also true that since the onset of the pandemic, Pune has been doing the highest per-day testing in the state and the more you test, more cases you tend to find. Also, the rate of recovery is the highest in Pune. In July, the rate of recovery was about 50 per cent, now it’s gone up to 75 per cent and the credit for this improvement goes to the health machinery of the district,” he said.

Deshmukh, who most recently served as the managing director of Haffkine Institute in Mumbai, said he worked as a nodal officer for several aspects, including testing and receipt of equipment via CSR, since the pandemic began.

“We established testing labs in government medical colleges and for this purpose, 191 testing equipment from Singapore and Germany were imported and supplied to the colleges,” he said.

“On testing parameters, I have been monitoring the situation and Pune has tested the most. In the first week of July, we tested 38,000 persons per week. By the last week, this number had gone up to about 70,000. Contract tracing in Pune is being done very effectively in the district and this may have also pushed up the detection count,” said Deshmukh.

He said in the last two months, mortality rate has gone down considerably among infected patients and hoped that in the next few weeks, it will see further improvement.

“In the next few weeks, we will work towards more effective tracking and importantly, how we can bring down the mortality rate further by relying on advanced treatment for hospitalised patients. Similarly, jumbo Covid facilities which are presently being set up will be completed on time. In the next two weeks, we may see a positive development on the mortality front,” said Deshmukh.

He said the upcoming Ganesh festival is a challenge and the administration will need co-operation from all members of the society to ensure that the spread of infection remains low during the festival

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