E-Paper
YourSpace: Must follow Kerala model to control virus spread, say Pune residents
With Covid-19 cases rising in the city and lockdowns apparently not helping in containing the virus spread, what should be the step forward? Pune residents list out actions authorities should take to ensure restriction norms are followed strictly
With Covid-19 cases rising in the city and lockdowns apparently not helping in containing the virus spread, what should be the step forward? Pune residents list out actions authorities should take to ensure restriction norms are followed strictly.
The city has seen multiple lockdowns, but cases are rising despite that. Is the lockdown a perfect solution? Epidemiologists should explore and explain it to the residents. It is true that lockdown is affecting the economy and people’s livelihood, especially of the toiling masses. The government should transparently explain the aims and objectives of lockdown with scientific evidence, and also its benefits.
What needs to be done if lockdown is not working apparently:
1) Tracing, testing and treating is very important to prevent the spread of disease. Kerala model of tracing the suspects and contacts in hotspot areas, testing as much as possible, quarantining of positive patients and treating was a five-point strategy followed by the state. We must follow the Kerala model efficiently.
2) Due to the fear of isolation in government’s poorly managed Covid care centres (CCCs), people are trying to hide their illness. Hundreds of beds are vacant in CCCs. To prevent this, a properly managed CCC is needed so that people will feel comfortable in these centres.
3) We should provide adequate supply of essential commodities to those living in hotspot areas so that they follow the regulations with wilful participation.
4) Despite information overload on Covid, people, in general, are not receiving scientific details about the pandemic and preventive measures. We should take steps towards information, education and communication (IEC) and tell residents the benefits of measures like physical distancing, use of scientifically correct mask and washing.
5) High-risk groups of people need special attention and consideration. This vulnerable population needs screening, tracing, testing and treatment of comorbidities. Preferably, Covid healthcare centres exclusively for suspected high-risk and positive high-risk patients.
6) There is tremendous chaos in the overall management of the pandemic. Patients are not getting beds, creating more panic among people. The government should publish a white paper on the projections of cases in coming days and how they are preparing to match the demand and supply of healthcare to both Covid and non Covid patients.
Dr Sanjay Dabhade
Social distancing, masks, washing hands the gold standard
We are going through an unprecedented situation, wherein Pune city recorded the highest single-day rise in patients in the last 24 hours, despite being under strict lockdown. According to epidemiological studies, enforcement of a lockdown is one of the most important measures we can undertake to mitigate the spread of the contagion. It restricts activities and allows administration in capacity building and preparedness. Whether lockdown is helping us or not is questionable, as only a fraction of the society is behaving as responsible citizens. There is a lot of confusion and misinformation regarding the virus. Only we, as citizens, can control the spread of this virus, simply by following basic sanitation guidelines. It is our city and we need to protect it and ourselves.
Lack of coordination at the administrative level, where everyone is trying to do things on their own, with very little interdepartmental communication, is responsible for the delay in decision making, implementation and awareness creation. We have to focus on increasing our testing capacity and importantly take action in isolating and monitoring positive patients. Due to variability and lag in the results of tests, patients unknowingly are capable of spreading the disease during this time.
With advancements on the medical side regarding diagnosis, treatment and vaccination in the last four months, it is still the public health measures like social distancing, hand washing, wearing a mask that are the gold standard.
I would advise all to restrict activities, irrespective of the status of lockdown, and to avoid sharing air space for more than 20 minutes in closed rooms where the air is stagnant. Let us support our local administration in their efforts to control this pandemic because as we know, the season of festivities will soon be upon us. So, let’s gift ourselves and our community good health for this festive season.
Dr Sanjay Patil
Enforcing lockdown not a Covid remedy now
The national lockdowns were important because they were an intervention to give us time to get educated and better equipped to handle the Covid-19 infection. The lockdown gave us the much-needed buffer, today the administration is experienced, protocols are refined, Covid warriors are better armed, and more importantly, the citizens are now mentally and emotionally prepared to fight this battle without much panic.
But enforcing lockdown across the city after three months of preparation is not a remedy to the virus. The latest lockdown had become a compulsion, which could have easily been prevented with proactive action from the administration to enhance our medical infrastructure.
The step forward is that we as a society have to accept that this virus is here to stay and, till a vaccine is found and distributed across the population, we need to learn to live with the virus. I believe the only way to achieve a balance between life and livelihood is to make this a community lead movement. From educating the citizens with hygiene protocols to effective contact tracing and early testing, we can gain control over the pandemic. Education and emphasising on mandatory mask usage, social distancing and other hygiene protocols among your locality, loved ones and friends is by far the best deterrent to the spread of Covid-19 within your community
Siddharth Shirole
Lockdown is a dearth of visionary planning
In Pune, the number of new Covid-19 infected patients is increasing at a rapid pace. At present, the daily count increases by more than 2,100 new patients. The ten-day lockdown initiated on July 13 proved a complete failure. The basic purpose of a lockdown is to impose a stringent restriction on crowding by masses in public, self-isolation of citizens and observing the rules of prevention on one side. On the other side, the ten-day period should have been used for micro-planning to manage the impending surge which is predicted in mid-August. It should have also been used to bring down the spread of infection. The civic administration failed in many aspects. Everywhere, the doors for the admission to hospitals are closed. The government, as well as private hospitals, are overflowing. At any given time as of today, there are no ordinary beds available, no beds with oxygen and a big no for ICU beds.
The civic administration is strangling the private hospitals to increase the number of beds and, every day, for every small mistake eager to pitch legal notices on them. There seems to be no attempt to increase the number of beds like Mumbai arranged a makeshift hospital at BKC or the Delhi government turned the train coaches into hospital rooms. There is an acute shortage of doctors to treat patients. The government doctors and residents are overworked and to compensate for the deficiency the private doctors are asked to work, leaving their own practice, causing inconvenience and injustice to their regular patients. The Ayush doctors who are competent in handling Covid patients with moderate symptoms are not used in full capacity.
The medical service in all private hospital has already become lame due to unavailability of trained nurses and other healthcare workers. The biggest problem for the government is the inability to pay a decent remuneration or salary to private doctors and the medical or paramedical staff. The field activity in such a situation demands a thorough contact tracing of infected patients. It seems to have taken a complete halt. The testing needs to be increased by five-fold, with the use of recently purchased rapid antigen testing kits, but there is no initiative in this regard. There must be a house-to-house survey in containment zones, to check symptomatic persons, individuals with co-morbid conditions and to perform their testing to find out and diagnose at the early stage and treat them. The lessons of hygiene in using public toilets in slums, which are mostly the hotspots of the pandemic, should be given.
The disinfection of these toilets after every use has to be stressed and taught to dwellers. This basic step in the epidemic control is ignored at large. The awareness training about using masks, keeping physical distance and washing hands for the inhabitants in containment areas are like things from a forgotten past in Pune. It is predicted that the pandemic will take a serious turn in mid-August. There is a dearth of a visionary plan to counter it.
Dr Avinash Bhondwe
Imperative to set up Covid-19 nodal authority in Pune
The manner in which the lockdowns are implemented since March 2020 — sometimes on and other times off. Due to this, the public is not taking the restrictions seriously. This is mainly because the Centre did not understand the seriousness of the pandemic. Cut back to the Central government guidelines which states could implement, but not dilute.
These should have been framed by experts, not IAS and IPS officers. Some states became over-enthusiastic and gave lockdown, unlock orders which gave a clear message to the public that no one was sure, but we are experimenting with what would work, if at all.
Local authorities were also unsure where sometimes more than two authorities were issuing orders which were contradictory to each other. These orders were not posted on a common website, but released as press notes, bits and pieces communicated on social media. All this resulted in people not taking the provisions in the orders seriously, but mocking them by partying, hanging out with friends, not maintaining social distancing and not wearing face masks. At many places, it was seen that masks were hanging around the neck mainly by politicians, which is a damaging vision for the public to see. Hence, it is imperative that the state government must set up a centralised Covid-19 nodal authority in Pune headed by a senior IAS officer since Pune Metropolitan Region (PMR) covers authorities such as district collector, PMC, PCMC, three cantonments and two police authorities, district cooperation department. All of them issue orders on micro-management of Covid-19 which are contradictory to each other. It is a reality which cannot be denied that official rising figures prove that we are into stage four that is herd immunity. No amount of lockdowns will help as cases will spike/surge as soon as the lockdown is lifted. The only solution is to have experts frame the guidelines, fine violations heavily, insist on social distancing and ensure corporators to hold workshops in their wards about building immunity levels.
Qaneez Sukhrani
Lockdown successful, 75,000 tests carried out
We have been able to achieve what we wanted to during this lockdown period. We have carried out about 75,000 tests in these ten days which is more than what we even did in the three months. The intention was to increase testing, which we did. It was not that the lockdown was necessary for testing, but these two are parallel things. If people keep roaming out then even one lakh tests per day would not be enough. The intention was that people must not roam out breaking social distancing norms and then this period could be dedicated completely to increasing testing which we did. The chain must break and it depends on how people follow the lockdown norms. Pune has the maximum number of testing in the country.
Rubal Agarwal, additional municipal commissioner (PMC)
