Coronavirus in Pune: Central team arrived to review rising COVID19 cases

 Mehab Qureshi

Pune, June 9, 2020: A central government team has arrived in Pune and visited the containment zones, hospitals, and Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) headquarters and reviewed the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in Pune. The focus should be on reducing the death rate and strict enforcement of restrictions in containment zones stated Union Housing Ministry’s joint secretary Kunal Kumar who led the central team. 

He also expressed satisfaction that all the agencies are working in coordination with the Pune district administration. He emphasised that volunteers should be enlisted in the densely populated area, and restrictions should be strictly enforced. Furthermore, Kumar said, “the measures that are being taken to prevent corona spread in Pune district are adequate. Still, special attention should be paid to areas with slums or overcrowding.”

“Senior citizens, as well as persons with other ailments, should be examined immediately. Moreover, patients with high blood pressure and blood sugar levels should be observed regularly; therefore, Oximeters should be used, with an emphasis on conducting more tests and increasing organizational quarantine,” he highlighted.

An online dashboard has been created, where citizens can check the number of availability of beds in Pune.

Central teams deployed to over 50 municipal bodies facing high COVID-19 case load 

The Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has deployed high level multi-disciplinary Central teams to 15 States/UTs with more than 50 districts/municipal bodies that are witnessing high case load and a high spurt of cases to assist the State Governments by providing technical support for containment and facilitate the management of COVID-19 outbreak. These States/UTs are Maharashtra (7 districts/municipalities), Telangana (4), Tamil Nadu (7), Rajasthan (5), Assam (6), Haryana (4), Gujarat (3), Karnataka (4), Uttarakhand (3), Madhya Pradesh (5), West Bengal (3), Delhi (3), Bihar (4), Uttar Pradesh (4), and Odisha (5).

The three-member teams are composed of two public health experts/epidemiologists/clinicians and a senior Joint Secretary level nodal officer for administrative handholding and improving governance. These teams are working in the field and visiting health care facilities to support the State health department in the implementation of containment measures and efficient treatment/clinical management of cases within the districts/cities. 

To ensure better coordination, quick action on the ground, adoption of a more granular strategy, it is proposed that these districts/municipalities should regularly remain in touch with central teams which are already coordinating with the States. Such frequent interaction would further strengthen the surveillance, containment, testing and treatment-related action on the ground.

The central teams are assisting the States/UTs in addressing some of the challenges faced by the State/UT authorities such testing bottlenecks, low tests/per million population, high confirmation rates, high testing confirmation rate, risk of capacity shortfall over the next two months, potential bed shortage, growing Case Fatality Rate, high doubling rate, a sudden spike in active cases, etc. Many districts/municipalities have already formalised a dedicated Core Team at the district level comprising of district-level medical and administrative officials to coordinate over a regular basis with the Central Team.