PMC ramps up vaccination effort but faces hurdles amid Covid-19 surge

There has been a steady increase in active cases in the city to 6,160 cases from 1,383 a month ago. The city is further registering an increase in critical patients and those in need of oxygen. The total number of active cases so far is 2,06,383 while 1,95,342 are considered recovered.

The PMC has decided to close schools, colleges and private coaching classes till March 14 to control the surge. It has further scaled up testing to identify the maximum number of infected residents and also declared micro-containment zones by empowering ward offices to take the call based on the number of infected patients in a building, society or locality. Accordingly, 42 micro-containment zones have been declared across the city.

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However, the PMC has received complaints that home quarantine rules have been violated by patients and residents in micro-containment zones.

The PMC plans to put stickers on the entrance doors of houses with at least five infected patients and a home quarantine stamp on the wrist of infected persons so that they can be easily identified in public places.

The civic administration was able to scale up vaccination in the city for the third phase, which includes vaccinating senior citizens and co-morbid patients above 45 years of age. As many as 7,099 residents were inoculated on Friday, including 4,983 senior citizens, 569 co-morbid patients, 557 healthcare workers and 990 frontline workers in the 58 centres.

The PMC has roped in 26 private hospitals in addition to the 41 government hospitals as vaccination centres. Centres in three civic hospitals with walk-in registration facility are operational in two shifts from 8 am to 10 pm on weekdays.