Aurangabad COVID-19 situation may improve by mid-Aug: Official

The 'trace, test and isolate' idea is working effectively in Aurangabad, Pandey said, adding the pandemic situation in the city may improve by mid-August. He said, "We are trying to trace at least 15 contacts of a positive patient and testing them rapidly has helped control the spread.

As Aurangabad faces a surge in COVID-19 cases, its civic commissioner Astik Kumar Pandey on Thursday said the pandemic situation in the city in central Maharashtra is likely to improve by mid-August. Initiatives taken by the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) to curb the spread of coronavirus are showing results now, Pandey told reporters here.

The city has so far recorded more than 12,000 cases. "The task force established by the AMC consists of 35 heath department officials and they are working round-the- clock on contact tracing. The data gathered through their control room has helped us reach more than one lakh elderly citizens," he said.

"The AMC is the first corporation to set up check- posts and identify (coronavirus) positive patients before they enter Aurangabad city," the senior official said. The 'trace, test and isolate' idea is working effectively in Aurangabad, Pandey said, adding the pandemic situation in the city may improve by mid-August.

He said, "We are trying to trace at least 15 contacts of a positive patient and testing them rapidly has helped control the spread. "The city has completed 77,000 tests and now the patients found positive in comparison to number of tests has gone down." Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19 cases in Aurangabad district rose to 12,151 by Thursday evening after 126 more people tested positive, an official said.

Out of the 126 new cases, 100 were reported from Aurangabad city and 22 from rural parts of the district. Four persons were found positive at Aurangabad city entry points through antigen tests, the official told..