Educational institutions in Pune to remain shut till February 28 as Covid-19 cases soar

Hotel and eateries to remain shut after 11 pm, only essential services to operate beyond the permissible time limit  

@the_news_21

Pune: Taking serious note of the alarming surge in Covid-19 cases across Pune district, all schools, colleges and private coaching classes have been directed to remain close till February 28, this was disclosed to newspersons by Pune Divisional Commissioner Saurabh Rao on Sunday.  

Following a review meeting of the pandemic situation chaired by Deputy Chief Minister and Pune Guardian Minister Ajit Pawar in which senior Pune administration and divisional officials were present, Pawar directed the officials to ensure that no ‘non-essential’ activities were to be permitted in public places or on the roads between 11 pm and 6 am.

All essential services like medicines, hospitals, delivery of vegetables, milk, newspapers will continue to operate as usual. 

“While no lockdown is being thought of as yet, we will be strictly enforcing the rules until the cases come down. People must avoid large crowd gatherings in order to break the chain. This dropping of one’s safety guard is unacceptable,” said Pawar. 

He further said that no more than 200 people would henceforth be permitted at wedding functions and political programmes for which ‘no objection’ certificates have to be obtained from the Pune police.  

In a bid to dissuade youngsters from roaming on the streets late in the night, all hotels and eateries will not be allowed to remain open beyond 11 pm as against their previous closing deadline of 1 am. 

Pawar also said that additional manpower and infrastructure would be provided to the Sassoon General Hospital in the next two-four days in order to cope better with any potential medical situation. 

Announcing the new restrictive measures, Rao said that virus ‘hotspots’ had been identified in the Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporations and the micro-containment zones would accordingly be formed to control the spread of the Coronavirus.  

The emerging hotbeds in Pune city are Kothrud, Bibwewadi and Sinhagad Road localities among others.  

“The interesting part is that these hotspots are not new. Last year, the pandemic was first detected in the Old City ‘Peth’ area and then spread to the outer periphery. We will also be activating Covid Care Centers (CCCs) in rural areas and check intermingling from rural to urban pockets,” said the Divisional Commissioner.  

Rao observed that Pune’s case positivity rate had currently shot up to 10% from a low of 4.5% a fortnight ago. The district has been reporting an average 750 to 800 cases since the past week.  

“While the infection rate had been on the decline in the last three months, there are signs that the situation is now changing again. We had detailed discussions with the Deputy Chief Minister on preparations to cope with this case surge. Pune currently ranks 12^th in the State in terms of case positivity. However, we have decided it is time to activate the standard operating procedures (SOPs) before the situation gets any worse,” he said. 

“Our immediate objectives are to identify and increase contact tracing and sample testing in the new hotspots in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad as well as the near semi-rural areas. We also plan to increase the inoculation of frontline workers and increase awareness drives,” said Rao. 

While the rise in Pune’s case positivity rate is not as high as that of districts in the Vidarbha region, Rao pointed to similar trends last year. 

“Last year, from March till the beginning of June, the case positivity ratio was relatively low, at 2 to 3%. Then, in June, it shot to 10% and suddenly doubled to 20% in August. As a result, this put a lot of strain on the medical infrastructure while causing people to panic. To avoid all this, we have taken these measures as advance preparation,” he explained, adding that as of now, there are no restrictions being imposed on inter-district travel.