Manoj Dattatrye More

Dismissing speculation that Ajit Pawar was unhappy after his son was reprimanded by Sharad Pawar, NCP's state chief Jayant Patil said, "Ajit Pawar is not at all unhappy...there are no disputes in the family.

In another development, the PCMC chief said the D Y Patil Medical College will conduct a serological survey among local residents to assess the presence of antibodies, a marker to determine the extent to which the infection has spread in an area.

After protests from political parties and local residents, the Ahmednagar Municipal Corporation said it will investigate the matter and take action against the guilty.

"Every life is important and must be saved. I visited YCM hospital on Saturday and took a round of the wards. I interacted with patients, nurses, ward boys, and doctors," said Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar on Monday.

"I joined PMO today. While leaving, I had handed over the charge to Zilla Parishad CEO Ayush Prasad," said Naval Kishore Ram, when contacted on Sunday afternoon.

It is not appropriate to say that effective measures have not been taken to control the situation. All officials have tried hard to check the spread of the virus in their respective areas. If there is success, people acknolwedge your effort, said Naval Kishore Ram

The PCMC administration, however, said there won't be many changes. “We have been putting restrictions that are done in red zone. Curbs like operation of shops on odd-even dates are already in practice,” Shravan Hardikar said.

The committee also directed all hospitals not to demand advance deposit from Covid-19 patients. "The priority for hospitals should be to admit the patients first and then inform the relatives about the treatment and billing aspect," the committee said.

In his complaint to the CMO, Sagar Charan said that large number of deaths of Covid-19 patients at YCM hospital seems to be primarily because there was a severe shortage of specialists resulting in junior doctors handling the patients.

RTI activist Vijay Kumbhar said, “After the transfer of PMC chief Shekhar Gaikwad... we had served a legal notice to the state government seeking reasons behind the transfer. Now, we will serve another legal notice seeking the reasons behind the transfer of Ram."

"IAS officers are selected to the PMO on the basis of their good performance... I have been selected under the central staffing system for a period of four years. I am happy about my elevation," said District Collector Naval Kishore Ramq.

The municipal commissioner said the selection of specialist doctors was done, but the appointment awaited approval from the civic general body. "General body meetings have been pushed back and, therefore, the appointments have remained on hold," he said.

Most shocking, said doctors, is unavailability of chest and TB specialists or pulmonologists. The doctors said all serious Covid patients develop pneumonia and only a pulmonologist is expected to treat them. But YCMH does not have a single pulmonologist.

The PCMC administration, however, claimed that in the last seven days, the system has improved in the industrial city and new facilities will lead to further improvement in patient care.

"We have around 19,000 cases now. Our doubling rate is 12 days... we expect 50,000 cases by August 15 as we also expect to increase our testing," PCMC Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar told The Indian Express.

PCMC commissioner Shravan Hardikar said,"After Javed Shaikh was given plasma therapy by doctors at the YCM Hospital, he had recovered from Covid and pneumonia. Doctors have told me that he had co-morbidity, including a liver ailment, which caused his death."

District collector Naval Kishore Ram said he has been getting complaints that private hospitals as well as the civic-run YCM hospital were turning away patients without guiding or directing them to hospitals where beds are available.

Pune District Collector Naval Kishore Ram said he will order an investigation as to why Shaikh was turned away from so many hospitals. "This should not have happened. We need to probe this thoroughly and set up an effective mechanism," he said.

Meanwhile, the PCMC commissioner has appointed two IRS officers, N Ashok Babu and Ravindra Chavan, to check the bed management and medical bills of private hospitals. The Divisional Commissionerate had deputed the two officers to PCMC.

In a span of less than 24 hours on Sunday, doctors and nurses were allegedly abused and threatened thrice. The first two of the three incidents occurred on Sunday morning and in the afternoon.

The first incident happened around 1.30 am when a patient succumbed to coronavirus. Minutes later, 10-14 relatives barged into the fifth-floor ward (503) in an attempt to attack the doctors and nurses.

Those who were severely ill with Covid have high level of antibodies, their plasma highly beneficial, say doctors.

“I have asked the contractors to improve the quality of meal served to patients at our Covid care centres and hospitals. If they cannot do so, they have been asked to quit,” Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar told The Indian Express.

Vegetable and cloth markets too have been allowed to operate on P1 and P2 basis, which means on even days, shops on one side of the road will be open and on odd days, shops on the other side. Civic grounds and gardens have also been opened.