This is an archive article published on January 25, 2022
27,000 Covid patients in home isolation, strictly monitoring their condition: PCMC
According to PCMC health department, 95 per cent of Covid-19 patients in the area are currently in home isolation. Until Monday, Pimpri-Chinchwad had 28,666 active cases of the infection.
The district registered its peak of third wave on January 24 when 93,642 active patients were in its jurisdiction with almost half of them from the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) area. (File)
EVEN AS the industrial city of Pimpri-Chinchwad has over 27,500 Covid-19 patients in home isolation, not a single patient has required any emergency help or hospitalisation so far this month, Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has claimed. Besides, no home-isolation death has been reported so far, officials said.
According to PCMC health department, 95 per cent of Covid-19 patients in the area are currently in home isolation. Until Monday, Pimpri-Chinchwad had 28,666 active cases of the infection.
Dr Laxman Gofane, who heads PCMC medical department, said since maximum number of patients are showing mild symptoms, they have been asked to isolate themselves at home. “However, these patients are strictly being monitored by the PCMC. If they need any help, we are reaching out to them,” he said.
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PCMC has roped in the services of a call centre for monitoring the home-isolated patients. Run by Ornet Technologies Private Limited, the call centre operates from Mumbai. Every day around 2,000-2,500 calls are made to patients isolating at home. “The patients are asked about their symptoms, about medicines they have been prescribed and whether they are taking them regularly, their blood oxygen level and other things…If they need any medical help, the civic doctors at Swasthya Tele Consultation Helpline set up in the Covid War Room are alerted who provide them with tele-consultation,” said Ram Bhojane, director of Ornet Technologies.
Dr Christopher Xavier, who heads the PCMC’s War Room, said that in nearly one month since Covid cases started rising in the city, and maximum number of patients were home isolated, the civic body has not come across a single case where the patient required hospitalisation. “But yes, they need medical advice. When the call centre staff gets such a call, the doctors who are available through the day at Covid War Room are alerted. The doctors then provide the necessary advice and counselling to the patients through the helpline. In last one month or so, the call centre staff has received over 1,500 calls from patients requiring medical advice,” he said.
Dr Abhijit Sangade, who heads the team of doctors at War Room, said, “In a few cases, when the patient have complained to us, we sent ASHA worker or a nurse from our nearby hospital to their residence. In other cases, the patient might require change in medicine or some other advice. Though our team of doctors works in the day time, during the night our staff guide the patients to approach the nearest zonal hospital of the civic body. But so far, we have had no emergencies wherein a patient was required to be shifted to the hospital.”
Ram said at least three calls are made to patients throughout their period of home isolation. “The first call is made as soon as the patient is put in home isolation. After that, we make at least three calls during the seven-day home-isolation period,” he said.
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In case of a death, the relatives of the patients are required to alert the call centres. “But so far, no such call or information been received from the relatives,” said Dr Sangade.
PCMC pays Rs 13 per call to the private agency for its service.
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More
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