Dr Rajendra Wable, in-charge of YCM Hospital, said they are constantly monitoring the health conditions of medical staff. (Representational Photo)
Four civic medical staff and 36 other residents, including high risk contacts of those who attended Nizamuddin congregation, on Friday tested negative for COVID-19 in Pimpri-Chinchwad.
However, one person was tested positive. “We had sent 36 throat swab samples to NIV yesterday (Thursday). All of them have tested negative for COVID-19,” Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar told The Indian Express. He added that a 54-year-old man, who had come in contact with two positive cases related to Nizamuddin congregation, has tested poitive for COVID-19.
“All of them have been told to remain in home-quarantine for 14 days. They will be monitored closely,” he said.
In all, over 1,500 residents of Pimpri-Chinchwad are in home-quarantine so far and their number has been rising as the civic body has approached all those who had returned to the city after February 1. These include those who had foreign travel history and their close contacts.
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Four medical staff in two civic hospitals also tested negative for coronavirus on Friday. “Four of them had some symptoms like cough and cold. We had sent their throat swab samples to NIV. Their test reports have come negative and they have been told to take rest,” the PCMC chief said, adding that the medical staff who are on duty are being provided medicine as per the government protocol.
Hardikar said they are keeping medical staff on hospital duty on rotation basis. “We have two isolation units. One at YCM Hospital and another at Bhosari hospital. Doctors and nurses are put on duty in isolation units for seven days and then now staff are put in place,” he said.
Dr Rajendra Wable, in-charge of YCM Hospital, said they are constantly monitoring the health conditions of medical staff. “They are also being given training regarding handling of COVID-19 patients. Every staff in the isolation unit is given PPE suits and N-masks,” he said.
YCM Hospital now has three patients. “Two are those who had attended Nizamuddin congregation. They are so far symptomatic. The report of 12th patient who had completed 14 days is awaited,” Wable said.
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Meanwhile, the PCMC chief said some retired doctors have responded to the appeal made by the administration to join civic service on temporary basis to help tackle the COVID-19 challenge. “We have already given extension to gynaecologist who has just retired. She had applied seeking to work two more months to help the civic administration in the current task. We are also scanning the applications of some other retired doctors,” he said.
Dr Wable said in the current situation, they were not terminating the services of any doctor or other medical staff.
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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Dr Rajendra Wable, in-charge of YCM Hospital, said they are constantly monitoring the health conditions of medical staff. (Representational Photo)
