PUNE/MUMBAI: The Covid hospitalisation rate in the state has remained the same as last week at 5. 7% even as the test positivity rate continued to be 23. 8%, said the weekly report of the public health department presented before the cabinet on Wednesday.
While nearly 22 districts, including Pune, have registered a high positivity rate, the hospitalisation rate in the state has been stable. Thirteen districts had a weekly positive rate (WPR) lower than the state average. Mumbai (8. 5%) and Palghar (7. 5%) are the only two districts with a WPR in single digits.
Several districts reported a positivity rate of more than 40%, a direct indicator that testing numbers were inadequate. Nagpur topped the list with a high positivity rate of 44. 5% followed by Pune at 42. 5%, Nashik 40. 9%, Gadchiroli 39. 2% and Wardha 38. 1%.
State additional chief secretary Dr Pradeep Vyas told TOI that the hospitalisation rate among active patients is 5. 7%, while 94. 3% are in home isolation. The report also said of those admitted, only 1. 9% were critical, 0. 8% were admitted in ICU, 0. 3% were on ventilators and those needing oxygen were 0. 5%.
Public health officials said the testing was limited to only symptomatic individuals according to ICMR protocol even as the state was carrying out nearly 2 lakh tests daily. “Most districts had achieved their peak and were gradually declining, but the cases are on the rise in rural areas as suggested by experts,” said one official.
Doctors, however, say even symptomatic people are not getting tested and are directly initiating treatment. There is also a lot of reliance on selftesting kits, whose results are not reported to authorities. “There is a fair bit of undercounting of cases in the third wave. However, it is important to test people who have Covid pneumonia or those with severe symptoms, else we will end up missing deaths too,” a senior physician told TOI.
In Mumbai, the daily positivity rate, which had gone up to 30%, had declined to 3. 2% on Thursday, according to BMC commissioner I S Chahal.
National task force member Dr Subhash Salunkhe said the way forward was to keep a close watch on hospitalisation and oxygen use and increase testing of symptomatic persons in rural areas. Cases will rise in different geographies till the end of February, but hospitals should be kept ready till June on a standby mode. Vaccination too has to be scaled up.
Nagpur, Pune have 40%+ positivity on low testing
The Covid hospitalisation rate in the state has remained stable at 5.7%
While nearly 22 districts, including Pune, have registered a high positivity rate, the hospitalisation rate in the state has been stable. Thirteen districts had a weekly positive rate (WPR) lower than the state average. Mumbai (8. 5%) and Palghar (7. 5%) are the only two districts with a WPR in single digits.
Several districts reported a positivity rate of more than 40%, a direct indicator that testing numbers were inadequate. Nagpur topped the list with a high positivity rate of 44. 5% followed by Pune at 42. 5%, Nashik 40. 9%, Gadchiroli 39. 2% and Wardha 38. 1%.
State additional chief secretary Dr Pradeep Vyas told TOI that the hospitalisation rate among active patients is 5. 7%, while 94. 3% are in home isolation. The report also said of those admitted, only 1. 9% were critical, 0. 8% were admitted in ICU, 0. 3% were on ventilators and those needing oxygen were 0. 5%.
Public health officials said the testing was limited to only symptomatic individuals according to ICMR protocol even as the state was carrying out nearly 2 lakh tests daily. “Most districts had achieved their peak and were gradually declining, but the cases are on the rise in rural areas as suggested by experts,” said one official.
Doctors, however, say even symptomatic people are not getting tested and are directly initiating treatment. There is also a lot of reliance on selftesting kits, whose results are not reported to authorities. “There is a fair bit of undercounting of cases in the third wave. However, it is important to test people who have Covid pneumonia or those with severe symptoms, else we will end up missing deaths too,” a senior physician told TOI.
In Mumbai, the daily positivity rate, which had gone up to 30%, had declined to 3. 2% on Thursday, according to BMC commissioner I S Chahal.
National task force member Dr Subhash Salunkhe said the way forward was to keep a close watch on hospitalisation and oxygen use and increase testing of symptomatic persons in rural areas. Cases will rise in different geographies till the end of February, but hospitals should be kept ready till June on a standby mode. Vaccination too has to be scaled up.
Nagpur, Pune have 40%+ positivity on low testing
The Covid hospitalisation rate in the state has remained stable at 5.7%
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