COVID-19: Pune, Pimpri declared containment zones in Maharashtra

In a bid to contain the spread of COVID-19, the municipal areas of Pune and the neighbouring satellite town of Pimpri-Chinchwad have been declared as containment zones.

The order was issued on Sunday night and would be in force for a week, April 20 to 27.

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Since Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) are densely-populated, combating COVID-19 is a big challenge.

There are 546 positive cases and 49 deaths in PMC jurisdiction while the same is 48 and 1, respectively, in the PCMC area.

Maharashtra's first COVID-19 case was detected in Pune.

Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who is the Guardian Minister of Pune district, ordered the complete PMC-PCMC lockdown. Pawar has also ruled out any sort of relaxation in the lockdown in these two cities of Pune.

In Maharashtra and in India, the Mumbai-Pune belt is the worst-affected region. In fact, large parts of Mumbai and the Mumbai metropolitan region, too have several containment zones.

At a meeting, Pawar has asked Pune's Divisional Commissioner Deepak Mhaisekar, Pune Collector Naval Kishore Ram, PMC Commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad and his PCMC counterpart Shravan Hardikar, to enforce the lockdown strictly.

It may be recalled that in 2009, during the Swine Flu outbreak, the first death was reported in Pune. It also reported the maximum number of cases in India.

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The PMC is spread over 331 sq km and PCMC, 182 sq km. The PMC and PCMC plus three Cantonment boards comprise the Pune Metropolitan Region spread over 7,000 sq km and is home to 70 lakh people.