The Panvel Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to increase the testing in areas where the number of positive cases of COVID-19 is more. The civic chief issued a circular on May 19, directing the civic health department for aggressive testing in micro and macro containment zones.
The civic body has divided containment zones into three categories. The first containment zone has less than 5 positive cases, the second or micro containment zones has positive cases between 5 and 15 and the third or macro containment zone has more than 15 positive cases.
As per the decision, the civic body conducts maximum RT-PCR tests in micro and macro containment zones to trace the infected persons. “Where the number of positive cases is more, there is a maximum chance of the spread of infections,” said Sudhakar Deshmukh, the municipal commissioner.
Since the civic body is following contact tracing, testing, and treating methods to contain the spread of the virus, the civic body will extensively conduct testing in days to come.
The number of active cases under the PMC has come down to 1781 with a constant drop in new cases. The recovery rate has also increased and it reached 94.87%. However, the civic body saw more deaths in the second wave of COVID-19. In the last two months, there are more than 350 deaths reported in the PMC area. The civic body is worried over deaths and has decided on extensive testing and tracing of infected persons.
