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PMC to bear cost of Covid-19 tests in private labs
According to municipal commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad, the Pune civic body has scheduled a meeting with the private labs to discuss bringing the costs of the tests down even further.
The spurt of Covid-19 cases in the city, 620 on Sunday, has moved the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to review its containment zones every seven days, instead of the current 15 days.
The PMC has also decided to bear the costs of of all Covid-19 tests it commissions to private laboratories.
According to municipal commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad, the Pune civic body has scheduled a meeting with the private labs to discuss bringing the costs of the tests down even further.
“The Maharashtra government has fixed the cost of the Covid-19 test at Rs 2,200 for private labs. The PMC is planning to bring it down in Pune and has invited quotations from the labs. The PMC plans to bear the whole cost. A meeting for the same will take place on Tuesday,” said Gaikwad, who along with Pune divisional commissioner Deepak Mhaisekar and district collector Naval Kishore Ram, held a joint press conference on Monday.
The move will help the civic body increase its daily testing capacity by 500 samples, according to Gaikwad.
Currently there is an average of 3,000 tests being conducted in Pune district daily, of which 1,500 to 2,000 take place in the city.
The civic body has also changed its strategy for reviewing containment zones.
“As per the existing policy, PMC is taking the review of containment zones every 15 days, but as the numbers are increase rapidly in non-containment zones, it has been decided to take a review every week. This way, we will announce new containment zones every week,” said Gaikwad.
PMC also plans to restrict the entry for citizens at its headquarters, as more employees are testing positive.
“I have given instructions to the security guard not to allow citizens into the headquarters. The Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation has also banned visitors to its headquarters,” Gaikwad said.
Migrants returning
According to district collector Naval Kishore Ram, as many as 23,000 passengers de-boarded 144 trains passing through Pune, after the Centre started train services, partially.
Of these 23,000 passengers, 8,963 have been identified as migrant workers returning to Pune.
“As the city has started witnessing an influx of migrant workers, we have asked the labour department to keep a tab on labourers returning,” said Ram.
Strict action for not wearing masks
Action will be initiated in the city against the citizens not wearing masks,” said divisional commissioner Deepak Mhaisekar.
Mhaisekar added, “The additional secretary has raised the same concern about the relaxation of citizens and instructed us to enforce mask wearing.”
According to the divisional commissioner, the city police and the PMC will jointly start the drive in the city and impose the fine (Rs 500) against those not wearing a mask.
District collector Naval Kishore Ram said, “It is a must to wear the mask. It is helpful for everyone and the government has asked citizens to wear masks. Despite making it mandatory, if the citizens are not using it, action needs to be taken.”
