Maharashtra: Focus on mass contact tracing ahead of festive season, winter

PUNE: The civic and the district administration will focus more on contact tracing ahead of the festive season and winter to prevent further spread of the coronavirus cases.
The administration is taking steps to reach out to various focused groups for conducting Covid-19 tests at a mass level. Tests will also be conducted on municipal and public transport service staffers. “The administration is trying to ensure better management of hospital beds for the festive season and winter,” divisional commissioner Saurabh Rao told a news conference on Wednesday.
“The overall recovery rate in Pune has gone up in the past few days. But citizens must follow the pandemic guidelines to improve the recovery rate even further,” he said.
“Pune is witnessing a consistent decline in the (Covid-19) positivity rate since the past few weeks. We have to ensure that the positivity rate goes below 10% in accordance with the Indian Council of Medical Research standards. Citizens should use face masks and ensure regular sanitization,” Rao said.
Pune municipal commissioner Vikram Kumar said, “Contracts with the private hospitals to utilize their beds for Covid-19 treatment are being renewed. We have, however, reduced the number of beds earmarked by the civic body in these private hospitals for Covid-19 treatment. Instead, we are urging the patients to avail of the benefits of the civic body-run Covid treatment centres and also the makeshift jumbo hospitals.”
He said, “Steps are being taken to make the citizens out in the public places more disciplined. We are strictly monitoring adherence to the face mask and physical distancing norms. The administration has so far collected a penalty of Rs11 crore from people flouting these norms.”