The new civic chief of Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) cleared that civic officials will have to be available 24 hours during the pandemic. Abhijit Bangar, a 2008-batch IAS officer took over charge as new civic chief of NMMC on Tuesday from Annasaheb Misal. Bangar said that no excuses will be entertained. He said that during a war, the country comes first and everything including family and friends come later.
Soon after taking charge, Bangar held a meeting with the officials to take stock of the COVID-19 situation in the city. He said that active cases are around 4000, and we need to be very focused on the plan of action. “All the officials are required to put their best, and there is no place for their excuses,” said Bangar. He added that officials will face action if they are found with negligence in executing their duties.
The number of COVID 19 positive cases has crossed 10,000 on July 15 under the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation jurisdiction. With 356 positive cases reported on July 15, total cases reached 10273. At present, the number of active cases is 3605 and 318 people died due to virus infection. The recovery rate is 62%.
Bangar said that the plan of action is tracing, testing, and management of beds available in the city. “We need to create our own testing facility to get the test results as soon as possible. The dependence of private lab needs to end,” said Bangar, adding that the delay in test report increases the possibility of transmission of coronavirus to others. “It also creates anxiety in patients and their family members unnecessary,” said Bangar.
The civic body will also focus to control the mortality rate. “In order to check the mortality due to COVID 19, we need to get the test reports as earliest as possible. We will soon start Antigen testing for COVID 19 in the city,” said Bangar. He added that the civic body will follow the guidelines of the Indian Council for Medical Research. However, the civic body can develop its own pattern and framework to fight against the pandemic.
In order to make hospital beds available for everyone, the civic body will develop a system where the real-time beds' availability will be shown. “We are also working on complaints regarding overcharging by private hospitals. The civic administration will ensure that COVID and non-COVID patients get treatment at charges fixed by the state government in private hospitals,” said Bangar
