Mundhe’s War Room is the nerve centre driving city’s corona response

Anjaya Anparthi | TNN | Apr 27, 2020, 04:08 IST

Nagpur: It is 10.30am and municipal commissioner Tukaram Mundhe, chief medical officer Dr Yogendra Savai, and additional medical officer health Dr Praveen Gantawar enter Corona War Room. Immediate task is to begin screening of pregnant women at two Covid-19 containment zones—Satranjipura and Mominpura. It is difficult to convince them for antenatal care (ANCs). Already there is lack of support in these areas.
The medical teams are ready at two zones. They call back informing they were able to convince a few pregnant women but the team of IGGMCH had not reached the place for taking swab samples.
Mundhe calls up dean of IGGMCH and lines up the teams. Information is received about resistance among family members to giving their samples. Some medical staff, especially those from the community that lives here, are sent to make people understand it is for the safety of not only women but also of the babies. Some more issues are sorted as they arise until functioning of camps at two zones is normalized by 1.30pm. By the end of the day, NMC could collect samples of 64 pregnant women in the area.
This is a typical day in Corona War Room set up by Mundhe to contain sread of Covid-19 in the city. He converted state-of-the-art conference hall adjacent to his cabin into War Room in March end. It is probably first among civic bodies in the country. Not only are glitches sorted out here, but it also functions like a think tank.
In fact, idea of screening pregnant women emerged from the War Room. "We launched door-to-door survey of high-risk persons from March 25. We collected data of tuberculosis (TB) patients, ANCs, cancer patients, senior citizens etc. Then, it was decided to examine all high-risk categories in a phased manner," Mundhe said.
Corona War Room sees up to three meetings in a day with the last one being at 8pm that sometimes goes up to midnight. This is the nerve centre of city’s response to coronavirus.
In case of any major health-related drive or issue, a posse of officials including zonal medical officers gather in the Corona War Room. It is a major part of the battle against Covid-19 in the city and has generated over 15 drives so far.
The War Room is linked with entire set up of NMC health department. A big screen is available for presentations apart from other facilities.
Mundhe has set up an Incident Response System with two different wings—health and civil supplies. He is at the head, Dr Savai is joint head for health and additional municipal commissioner Ram Joshi is joint head for civil supplies. If any issues arises, entire team and required data are at hand to take decisions.
A control room with six helpline numbers of which three are for Covid-19, fourth for senior citizens, persons with disabilities, fifth for water, sanitation and sixth for other services has been set up on the ground floor. Medical officer (health) Dr Vijay Joshi and team takes care of Covid-19 helplines.
Half of 5th floor in NMC New Administrative Building has been converted into health department. There is another control room here where all information about negative and positive persons from laboratories and collector office is received. This control room passes information to one on the ground floor from where a team leaves for institutional quarantine centres to take positive persons for admission in government isolation wards.
Part of Smart City office on 7th floor has been developed as a data analysis centre where all data is compiled, statistics prepared and passed on to Corona War Room and control rooms.
Part of 7th floor also houses Smart City Command and Control Centre that has a huge video wall with footages from all CCTVs installed across the city streaming in. It is also utilized for containing Covid-19.