PMC benefits from public awareness, records 11.6% patients reporting for testing on their own

“Maximum 81.2 per cent patients were identified through contact tracing, while awareness raised by the civic body helped 11.6 per cent patients report their symptoms on their own,” said Mayor Murlidhar Mohol.

The mortality rate in the PMC is 2.43 per cent, as compared to the country’s 2.29 per cent, the state’s 3.63 per cent, and 5.58 per cent in Mumbai. “Aggressive testing has helped identify patients at an early stage and isolate them for treatment and further check the spread of the infection,” Mohol said.

As of July 25, 5,460 patients were recorded to have reported for testing on their own. “The large number of persons reporting for testing on their own is helping the civic administration to identify patients, seeing that the civic body is already overburdened with the responsibility of finding patients from among 40 lakh people,” said a civic officer.

The officer said the PMC had started many initiatives to identify patients, apart from contact tracing, and self-reporting was a sign of increasing awareness among residents.

The PMC has also decided to further intensify public awareness efforts so that the fear around the disease could reduce and contribute in handling the pandemic more effectively, the officer added.

The PMC has decided to undertake public awareness campaign on Covid-19 through social media, television, radio, print, and display boards.

The civic body has set up numerous centres for rapid antigen testing to provide easy access to suspected cases, so that they can get themselves tested.

The PMC has recorded a total number of 48,057 positive cases as on July 26, out of which 28,593 patients have recovered and been discharged. The death toll has climed to 1,166, while 682 are critical. The increasing number of critical patients has become a cause of concern as the PMC is facing shortage of relevant beds. Many critical patients from other districts are also getting admitted to city hospitals.

The authorities have made hospitals discharge patients who are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms and advise them home quarantine to make way for critical patients. As many as 8,394 out of 18,298 active cases are in home quarantine, while the remaining are in different Covid care centres across the city.