Coronavirus Pune: Central team takes review of prevention measures

Pune: The central government team which visited the city on Monday has instructed civic administration to implement coronavirus prevention measures strictly in the micro-containment zones; take help of volunteers to enforce social distancing in the densely populated containment zones and focus on reducing the death rate due to COVID-19 in the city.

Kunal Kumar - former Municipal Commissioner of Pune and presently Joint Secretary at the Urban Development Ministry in the central government - is heading the central team. Kumar and his team landed in the city on Monday morning to take stock of the coronavirus pandemic situation. 

The team visited containment zones, hospitals and the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) building. Thereafter the team headed to the Divisional Commissioner Office to take a review of the rising number of cases and preventive measures being taken at the city level.

Kumar was accompanied by Dr Sitikanta Banerjee and  Dr Arvind Kushwah of AIIMS Nagpur. Divisional Commissioner Dr Deepak Mhaisekar, District Collector Naval Kishor Ram, Municipal Commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad, Sugar Commissioner Saurabh Rao, Animal Husbandry Commissioner Sachindra Pratap Singh, Groundwater Survey and Development Agency Director Kautubh Divegaonkar were present for the review meeting. 

Kunal Kumar said, "The measures taken to prevent coronavirus outbreak in the district are satisfactory. There is a need to focus on slums and densely populated areas."

"Testing of senior citizens and co-morbid patients needs to be ramped up. High blood pressure and sugar levels in such persons should be monitored continuously and whether they are taking medicines and treatment regularly needs to be monitored. Volunteers from local areas should be appointed for these monitoring activities. Pulse oxymeter should be used and institutional quarantine should be adopted along with increasing the number of tests conducted," Kumar added.

A dashboard displaying real-time information of beds available in the hospitals in the city has been activated. Any citizen can check the availability of beds in nearby hospitals in his locality. With dashboard facility, ambulance service and hospital bed management system should be made robust, the central team officers said. 

What the team reviewed

Patient numbers in the district 

Area-wise count of patients 

Co-morbidity in patients 

Deaths due to Covid-19 and causes behind it 

Details of containment zones

Door-to-door survey analysis

COVID centre and hospital management preparation