Amid rising COVID-19 cases in Pune, Mayor Murlidhar Mohol on Tuesday had a telephonic conversation with Union Minister Prakash Javadekar and the latter has promised to provide the city with 100 ventilators through the PM CARES Fund.
Mohol took to Twitter and said, "Union Minister Hon'ble Shri. @PrakashJavdekar and I had a phone conversation. Through #PMCares, ventilators will be supplied to Pune immediately and this number will be increased to 100 in phases."
He added that Javadekar will today be holding a very important meeting regarding the situation in Pune. "I will present information regarding the status of the city, planning and needs during this meeting," he wrote in Marathi.
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) had earlier in the month received 13 ventilators through the PM CARES Fund. Out of the 13, four ventilators were placed at Naidu Hospital and nine were given to the Sassoon General Hospital.
Reportedly, Pune is facing a shortage of beds and ventilators amid a huge surge in the COVID-19 cases. According to a report, Pune has 3,701 beds with oxygen support, and 475 beds with ventilator support. By July 31, the city is predicted to face a shortage of 11,822 beds without oxygen, 652 beds with oxygen, 848 ICU beds and 374 ventilator beds.
Meanwhile, Pune district on Monday reported 3,044 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, taking its count to 72,782.
The death toll rose to 1,737 with 38 more patients succumbing to the infection in the western Maharashtra district. Also, 896 patients were discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours.
Of the 3,044 cases, 1,820 were reported from Pune Municipal Corporation limits (the city), which now has 46,786 cases. With 981 cases, the tally in Pimpri-Chinchwad rose to 17,641.
The number of positive cases in rural and Pune Cantonment Board areas increased to 8,355.
