He said the school education department would issue Covid-appropriate behavior guidelines before the offline classes started for the tiny tots next week. He also said the decision to shut the two jumbo care centers at College of Engineering, Pune, and Anna Saheb Magar stadium was taken because the Pune district’s weekly positivity rate (WPR) dropped to 4.4% and active cases declined by 51%.
“We have taken into consideration the current Covid situation, decline in cases, availability of hospital infrastructure and the hospitalisation rates before taking the decision. All elected representatives gave their consent for the same,” he said after the district’s Covid review meeting.
Ajit Pawar said the Pune divisional commissioner, along with the district collector, the Zilla Parishad‘s chief executive office, and the commissioners of Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad municipal corporations, would decide on the distribution of the jumbo hubs’ equipment to the government hospitals for utilization.
With the likelihood of new variants of coronavirus emerging and possible rise in hospital admissions, he said the district had readied enough healthcare infrastructure in both private and government set-ups. “So, there would not be any issues in the availability of beds,” he said.
According to the data of the district health officials, of the total 3,393 Covid patients in the district in the week ending on February 23, only 625 were admitted in hospitals. In the February 10-16 period, 983 patients were in hospitals.
The deputy chief minister said WPR of all the three administrative units in the district dropped from last week, but the slow pace of vaccination remained a concern.
Till now, about 1.7 crore people have been vaccinated against Covid-19 in the district.
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