COVID-19 case doubling rate in city is now nine days: Pune Municipal Commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad

Pune: Pune municipal officials on Tuesday said the doubling rate of COVID-19 cases in the city was nine days, and the seven-day span mentioned by an inter-ministerial central team earlier was based on data taken six days ago.

The ICMT had visited Pune on Monday and had said the number of days in which cases were doubling was seven, a rate higher than that in the national scenario.

"The data taken by ICMT was of six-day ago. We are improving. While the Central team was here, the doubling rate improved to eight days and as of now, the number of days it takes for COVID-19 cases to double is nine," Pune Municipal Commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad said.

"Over the last three days, the number of cases being reported is also coming down. On Saturday, the number of cases reported in Pune city was 107. It was 94 the day before yesterday. On Monday, it was still lower at 72," he added.

He said that the ratio between testing and positive cases was 9:1, adding that the emphasis was on "accurate and focused testing", especially in hotspots. "Testing has to be focused and targeted and not just for the sake of it. For example, if there are 10 close contacts of a COVID-19 patient and two of them have no symptoms, then the duo's tests are not taken then," he explained.

"The reason they are not tested at the time is that the result may be negative. However, there is a chance they may test positive for the virus in five to six days as this is how the virus behaves. People test positive after seven days from the day they get the infection," he said.