MYSURU: Mysuru has seen a remarkable improvement in the discharge of Covid patients that too amid the Dasara festivities. The active case count has dropped by over 75 per cent in the last 15 days in the district. Exactly 15 days ago, Mysureans was gripped in fear as many predicted a huge spike in cases with the commencement of 10-day festivities in the district.
But the data from the health department and the Mysuru district administration has proved this wrong besides giving the hopes of Covid curve flattening in the district. On October 17 (Dasara inaugural day), the active case count in the district was 7,246 while on Sunday (November 1) it dropped to 1,582 cases. Of the total 47,831 cases reported in the district, 45,290 have recovered.
Two weeks back the recovery rate in the district was 81.7 per cent which has now risen to 94.6 per cent which is higher than the state average recovery rate. Strictly following the technical advisory committee recommendations during the Dasara festivities and ramping up of testing seems to have put a break on the spread of the virus in the district as it reported 3,193 fresh cases in the last 15 days while 8,820 recovered during the same period. Similarly, over 87,000 samples were tested in the last two weeks.
While the coronavirus cases saw a huge spike post-Onam in Kerala and Durga puja in West Bengal, the situation in Mysuru seems to be under control thus far. When asked, Deputy Commissioner Rohini Sindhuri said the district administration was quite strict in implementing various precautionary measures to control the number of people gathering during Dasara and closely monitored the situation with good coordination between all departments which has yielded this result.
"Earlier we had the maximum deaths and mortality rate compared to any district and going by this, we couldn't take any chances. It's always better to be safe than sorry, though it was a tough path. We could not allow festivities to play havoc with the lives of people and took all necessary measures. It's still not over. So far the numbers look under control but we still should look for the next 15 days as there are a lot of holidays and I request people to be more careful," she said.