Amid the concerns over the spike in COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra, the Pune administration on Friday informed that notwithstanding a surge in positivity rate, the mortality rate remains low in the city.

Pune Mayor Murlidhar Mohol said to the media, "Despite COVID-19 cases increasing with every passing day in Pune, the mortality rate remains low. The mortality rate in Pune is at 2.29 percent which was above 2.6 percent earlier. However, the positivity rate which had gone down below 10 percent recently has again reached 23 percent in Pune."

The Pune city administration has increased the COVID-19 testing upto 12,000 a day to combat the virus. "Around 90 percent of COVID positive patients are in home isolation and the severity of the cases is low this time. The Pune city administration has increased the COVID-19 testing upto 12,000 a day," the Mayor said.

Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh continue to report a surge in fresh COVID-19 cases and they account for 80.63 percent of the daily new cases, the Union Health Ministry said on Friday. As many as 39,726 new daily cases were reported in the last 24 hours. Maharashtra continues to record the highest daily new cases at 25,833, 65 percent of the daily cases, followed by Punjab with 2,369 while Kerala reported 1,899 new cases.

In terms of response, the Centre is actively engaging with all state and Union Territories governments, especially those showing an upsurge in daily new cases and with a high caseload of active cases.

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