Mayor blames Mundhe for spike in Covid-19 +ve cases

Proshun Chakraborty | TNN | Apr 22, 2020, 04:11 IST

Nagpur: Mayor Sandeep Joshi on Tuesday blamed municipal commissioner Tukaram Mundhe for the growing number of corona positive patients in the city.
“Quarantine rules are being brazenly violated. All the suspected patients are brought together to the MLA Hostel. The inmates openly chat and enjoy meals together despite chances of one of the inmates testing positive for coronavirus,” Joshi said in a letter to Mundhe.
TOI has highlighted the issue of mixing of suspects with untested inmates at quarantine centres among other violations of social distancing there. All suspected patients whose reports are awaited are expected to stay in separate rooms. On the contrary, no such restrictions are being followed at MLA Hostel, he said.
The mayor also alleged that officials were unable take corrective steps due to fear of Mundhe. “This is a serious issue and doesn’t augur well for the city. Instead of taking preventive measures, the civic chief is busy in patting his own back,” the mayor said.
With over 80 patients, the civic administration believes the situation is under control but continuous rise in number of patients in institutional quarantine centres exposes poor management.
The mayor also suggested to tie red (for infected people) and green tags (for suspected cases but tested negative and needing quarantine) to differentiate persons. “Strict measures are a must to break the chain of corona spread,” the mayor stressed.
Mundhe, however, ruled out the violations and claimed that quarantine guidelines laid down by the state government, central government and the World Health Organization are being followed religiously. “Most of those who came in contact with positive persons have been quarantined. So far we succeeded in breaking the chain.”
He pointed out the need of the hour is to fight Covid-19 together than making allegations.