Check Corona patient in Pune near you, help city make COVID free

Pune, April 30, 2020: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is the civic body that governs Pune City, the second-largest city of Maharashtra. It is in charge of the civic needs and infrastructure of the metropolis, which is spread over an area of 331.26 sq km and has 3.4 million residents. The city is divided into 5 zones each and 15 ward offices.

The Coronavirus outbreak (officially known as Covid-19), which started in China, has so far killed over 2 lacs people across the globe and infected more than 30 lacs people. According to PMC officials till 9 pm yesterday, two patients died during treatment while 27 patients including four senior citizens were discharged after being cured. There are still 1121 active patients including 70 critical patients.

The first cases of the coronavirus pandemic were confirmed in Pune on 9 March 2020. Pune Municipal Corporation created CoVID19 response team. The health department of PMC immediately roped in and started the isolation facility in a form of expansion of isolation facility from 6 beds to 106 beds along with 6 beds ICU with Ventilator facility.

Under the guidance of the state government, Pune Divisional Commissioner Dr Deepak Mhaisekar, District Collector Naval Kishore Ram, PMC Municipal Commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad and Addl. Municipal Commissioner Rubal Agarwal, who is also the CEO of Pune Smart City, took various several meeting with government officials, municipal officials, private hospitals in the city and made a preparedness plan.

In more than a month, the number of patients has increased drastically. The five wards of the PMC – Bhavani Peth, Kasba-Vishrambaugwada, Shivajinagar-Ghole Road, Dhole Patil Road, Yerwada-Kalas-Dhanori, out of total 15 wards are among the highly affected wards which need more needs to be focused more to convert these hotspots into corona free zone. Each of them has more than 100 positive patients.

The administration has prepared a plan focused on these wards addressing all key issues. Pune Municipal Corporation would also like to thank citizens for their support thought out the lockdown. The location of positive patients have given for reference of people so that they can take precautions. However, they should not discriminate else legal action will be taken against them. PMC Action plan to make Pune Coronavirus free include following steps:

Medical-related steps include Rigorously Contact tracing with focus on High risk and Low-risk contacts, Swab testing and Provision of more testing kits, Dedicated COVID Care booth in the hotspot area, Dedicated 10 Ambulances ward wise, 75 teams per ward for the above 5 wards & 25 teams in other 10 wards, Door to Door Check-up Per Ward, Immunity Enhance Medicine as per symptomatic guidelines

Negative patient to be discharged with a packet of 5 masks, sanitizer soap & lizol, Ensure comprehensive medical, nutritional, and psycho-social care for those with COVID-19, Adopt standardized systems for molecular testing, supported by assured access to reagents and kits.

Sanitation planning: Extensive Sanitization in the area regularly, Hotspot in slum area identification, Support access to water and sanitation for health (WASH) services in public places and community spaces most at risk.

Food and Shelter home planning: School to be used for night shelters, food supply Planning, Engage with local donors, trusted community groups and existing programmes to mobilize/allocate resources and capacities to implement the operational plan, Central Kitchen to distribute food so that no need to go out for grocery.

Vigilance the activities in support with of Pune Police: Commissioner of Police Dr K Venkatesham has formed 7500 Special Police Officers (SPO) with some specific powers to help Police to Manage Micro-Clusters. In future, they may become volunteers for supporting Pune Covid Care Centers. SPOs are providing Essential Services and to make aware of Social Distance Management and Lockdown norms.

The micro-clusters are places with high population density and over five positive cases. These SPOs are from the same areas. Pune Police has made a pyramid structure and WhatsApp groups to keep a track. They send pictures with time and location every day.

The other steps orientation and training of municipal staff, extensive use of SMART WAR ROOM, Regular door to door survey, PMC to display helpline number and Disaster cell number everywhere, Regularly monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of readiness and response measures at points of entry, and adjust readiness and response plans as appropriate.

Utilize two-way ‘channels’ for community and public information sharing such as hotlines (text and talk), responsive social media and radio shows, with systems to detect and rapidly respond to and counter misinformation.