This is an archive article published on April 11, 2020
Three more cases in Pimpri-Chinchwad, one patient on ventilator support
One of the patients admitted to YCMH earlier was put on ventilator on Friday after his condition deteriorated. This is first time a coornavirus patient has had to be put on ventilator support in the industrial city.
The PCMC chief said the three positive cases detected on Friday were also high-risk contacts of Tablighi attendees. (Representational Photo)
FOR the second consecutive day on Friday, three coronavirus (COVID-19) cases were reported from Pimpri-Chinchwad. With this, the total number of positive patients admitted in the civic-run YCM Hospital has gone up to 14.
One of the patients admitted to YCMH earlier was put on ventilator on Friday after his condition deteriorated. This is first time a coornavirus patient has had to be put on ventilator support in the industrial city.
“He is 50-year-old man and a high-risk contact of a Tablighi attendee,” said Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar.
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Tablighi Jamaat, a religious group, had held a congregation at Delhi’s Nizamuddin in mid-March. The gathering has subsequently emerged as a COVID-19 hotspot.
The patient on ventilator had underlying health conditions. “He suffers from a liver ailment… this morning, his condition deteriorated and subsequently, he was put on the ventilator…,” said Hardikar.
The PCMC chief said the three positive cases detected on Friday were also high-risk contacts of Tablighi attendees.
“So far, there has been no community transmission in Pimpri-Chinchwad. But nothing can be said of the future. This is because people are travelling between Pune city and Pimpri-Chinchwad. In Pune city, cases have gone up, which is not the case in Pimpri-Chinchwad so far, where we have been able to contain the disease,” he said.
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Urging local residents to take care of themselves, the PCMC chief said, “Each citizen is expected to behave responsibly. They should first take care of themselves by maintaining social distance, wearing a mask and washing their hands repeatedly. If we first care for ourselves, then the spread of the virus can be kept in check to a large extent,” he said.
Hardikar said the rise in the cases in the past few days was expected. “We never expected that there would be zero or fewer cases. Cases are bound to rise but we have to ensure that they don’t go beyond our control,” he said.
The PCMC chief said even if cases go up, authorities have made necessary facilities to accommodate increasing number of patients. “We have kept nearly 1,500 beds ready… but we don’t expect a major spike as we have initiated a number of containment measures,” he said.
Meanwhile, the first day after Bhosari was sealed off, all shops in the area remained shut and no vegetable and fruit vendors could be seen. The decision to enforce the lockdown for three days was taken after one case was detected on Thursday.
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