Panvel officials worried as COVID-19 cases witness surge

Government officials during an anti-COVID drive in Panvel. File pic

As COVID-19 cases go down across the state, Panvel has emerged as an outlier. The area under Panvel Municipal Corporation is recording a surge in infections, with active cases doubling in the past 8 days.

Until recently, Panvel had been reporting less than 20 cases a day, which has now shot up beyond 60 in the new year. While civic officials term the situation a "slight increase", local leaders say PMC is not conducting enough tests and restrictions have gone for a toss.

Panvel has a population of nearly 8 lakh. So far, it has reported over 27,000 COVID-19 cases of which about 96 per cent have recovered.

"In the last 8 days, as per the PMC's own data, 3581 tests have been done. That means on a daily basis they are doing 440-odd tests. The number is too low for the population," said Gajanan Kale, the Navi Mumbai chief of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.

"One can agree that infection rate has gone down overall, but reduction in tests will give rise to mass spread and sudden surge. There are no restrictions now, no tests happening at railway stations, there is a crowd at markets, hotels. I won't be surprised if the daily cases pass the 100 mark," he added.

The active cases reported by PMC on January 1 were 282 which have now leapt to 482. Also, the daily case count which had come down below 50 and was in the range of 30s and 20s have gone up to 70 cases per day now.

A PMC official said, "We have done a lot in the last 9 months. Now, as everything has been unlocked, it's up to the people to follow rules. We are doing our best to contain spread but we need people's participation as well."

PMC Commissioner Sudhakar Deshmukh remained unavailable despite attempts.

Numbers north-bound

. As on Jan 9
Total cases - 27,963
Total recovery - 26,870
Total deaths - 611

. Active cases
Jan 1 - 282
Jan 9 - 482