Drop in calls to NMC Covid-19 control room

Nagpur: From attending phone calls enquiring about coronavirus symptoms, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s Covid-19 helpline is now getting complaints regarding people flouting home quarantine norms, venturing out without wearing masks etc.
Since setting up of the helpline on March 12, the control room used to get 40 to 50 calls on an average daily, which rose to 100 on three numbers – 0712-2567021, 0712-2551866 and 18002333764. Now, the number of phone calls pertaining to coronavirus scare at the helpline has reduced drastically from approximately 80 calls a day to 10 to 12 now.
The control room — being monitored by municipal commissioner Tukaram Mundhe — has received over 6,000 phone calls till June 27, said control room in-charge and NMC’s medical officer (medicine) Dr Vijay Joshi.
The control room also receives calls from Kamptee, Hingna, Wadi etc apart from the city. The staffers there note down the details of callers and pass on the information to the control room set up by the district collectorate.
Even queries on NMC’s corona app (launched on March 27) for the benefit of symptomatic citizens with problems of cough, fever, and difficulty in breathing, too reduced to 518.
Dr Joshi also highlighted some recent instances when the helpline offered immediate assistance to people in need and also ensured that people under home quarantine do not venture out. “With the easing of lockdown norms, many citizens who had been stuck in other cities and states have returned home. As per rules, they should stay at home for at least 14 days,” said Dr Joshi. As many were not following the rules, their neighbours alerted the NMC’s helpline numbers. It helped many a times, he said adding the helpline also received fake calls too.
The helpline has also started receiving calls pertaining to people venturing out without face masks. In such alerts, people at the call centre passed the information to NMC’s nuisance detection squad.
In another case, the control room received a call from a private hospital after staffers there suspected a patient having coronavirus symptoms. “We later guided them to shift the patient to either of the two government hospitals — GMCH or IGGMCH,” said Dr Joshi.
Paramedical staff deployed in three shifts is also helping the NMC’s health (medical) staffers to trace contacts of positive patients and also sharing guidelines and alerts to callers.