Covid infection leads to two types of cardiac complications one is acute, during the infection and other is chronic when the patient has recovered from the infection. (Representational Image)
THE jumbo hospital for Covid-19 patients in Nehrunagar, which was set to open on Thursday, has been delayed by at least two days.
“Work on the hospital structure will be completed in the next two to three days. Some technical work, like installation of oxygen tank and electric issues, is pending. Once everything is in place, we will start the jumbo hospital,” Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar told The Indian Express.
The 800-bed hospital is being set up through the joint efforts of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), PMRDA and the District Collectorate at a cost of Rs 70 crore. The hospital is coming up at the space earlier occupied by the Annasaheb Magar stadium, which had been demolished by the PCMC to develop a new stadium. The cost of the hospital will be borne by the PCMC, PMC and the PMRDA.
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Of the hospital’s 800 beds, at least 150 will be ventilator beds, while there will be a separate intensive care unit. “The hospital will take load off the YCM Hospital and cater to the rising demand for ventilator beds,” said Hardikar.
The YCM Hospital has 90 beds in the ICU of which 50 are ventilator beds. Before being declared a Covid hospital, it was catering to non-Covid patients from Khadki and Dehu Road cantonments, Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, as well as from neighbouring talukas of Maval, Mulshi, Khed and Junnar. Sassoon is the only other government-run hospital with capacity of more than 500 beds.
Besides Niramaya Hospital, no other major hospital in Pimpri-Chinchwad is offering treatment for non-Covid patients. “After the jumbo hospital starts functioning, we will be in a position to treat non-Covid patients at YCM Hospital. Many poor patients had to postpone their surgeries there as it has become a Covid hospital,” Hardikar said.
Meanwhile, Pimpri-Chinchwad is witnessing at least 900-1,000 positive cases every day, the PCMC said. “We are currently witnessing our peak period as cases are surging. Of the total samples, we are getting 25-27 per cent positivity. We expect positive cases to start going down from September,” he said.
Hardikar said the strict implementation of Ganesh festival norms and testing of super spreaders like hawkers and shopkeepers will help in reducing the number of cases. “We are strictly implementing the norms for Ganesh mandals. Not a single Ganesh mandal has sought permission to set up a pandal. This will help prevent gatherings and keep the virus at bay,” he said.
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The PCMC administration, besides conducting tests in containment areas for co-morbid patients, is also tracking and monitoring co-morbid patients outside containment zones. “We are continuing our focus on co-morbid patients, which will help in reducing mortalities,” Hardikar said.
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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