This is an archive article published on March 20, 2021
As cases surge, PCMC directs 40 private hospitals to reserve beds for Covid patients
The PCMC has also decided to start a Covid care centre in Gharkul area, but no decision has been taken yet on restarting the 800-bed jumbo Covid hospital in Nehrunagar.
The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation. (File)
AS COVID-19 cases surged to a six-month high of 1,341 on a single day, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has stepped up its efforts to meet the situation vis-a-vis the availability of beds. The civic administration has directed 40 private hospitals to reserve 2,800 beds for coronavirus patients.
Municipal Commissioner Rajesh Patil on Friday wrote to private hospitals to ensure that beds for Covid patients are reserved, in view of the daily rise in cases, civic officials said. The PCMC has also decided to start a Covid care centre in Gharkul area, but no decision has been taken yet on restarting the 800-bed jumbo Covid hospital in Nehrunagar.
Additional Health chief Dr Pavan Salve said the private hospitals have been asked to keep the beds ready as the industrial city has been witnessing rapid rise in cases. “From around 60 cases in early February, we are now witnessing around 1,300 cases every day. In view of this, we will need extra beds. Though we also have a good bed capacity in our hospitals, we will need the help of all 40 private hospitals in the city,” he said.
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The PCMC has 210 beds reserved for Covid patients at the civic body-run YCM hospital which is the biggest one in the industrial city. At other civic hospitals like New Bhosari hospital, there are 100 beds, while New Jijamata hospital has 100 beds and Balnagari Covid care centre has 500 beds. “Of 500 beds are Balnagari, 400 are already occupied. We are starting the Gharkul Covid care centre, which will have 400 beds,” he said.
Dr Salve said the situation has been manageable so far, as several patients have mild symptoms and prefer home isolation. “We are admitting only those with severe symptoms,” he said.
Dr Salve however said the decision regarding the start of the jumbo hospital will be taken by the district administration. “When we get the clearance, we will start it,” he said.
On Friday, Pimpri-Chinchwad registered 1,341 new cases, which civic officials said was the highest in last six month. The “B” zonal offices registered the highest number of 258 cases on a single day.
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The health department said 641 patients were discharged on Friday. Six patients, which include two from outside PCMC limits, died on Friday. These included a 60-year-old patient from Chinchwad and three 85-year-old men.
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Since March 2020, Pimpri-Chinchwad has registered 1,19,518 cases. Of these, 1,08,143 have been discharged. The industrial city has so far seen 2,695 deaths. Of these, 1,897 are from Pimpri-Chinchwad limits while the rest are from outside PCMC limits like Khadki, Dehu Road, PMC and nearby talukas.
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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