The sudden rise in COVID-19 positive cases under the Panvel Municipal Corporation (PMC) posed a challenge before the civic body to manage the availability of oxygen beds and ventilators. While the civic body has already tied up with private hospitals, the sudden rise has forced it to explore more options.
Since the Ganpati festival, the city has seen more than 4000 positive cases of Covid-19 of which 1000 cases have been reported in the last five days alone.
Under the PMC, there are 3696 beds available of which 847 have oxygen facilities. The number of ICU beds is 236.
The total number of positive cases under the PMC is 14398, of which 12017 have recovered. However, at present, the active cases under the PMC are 2048. So far 333 have already died due to the infection.
Sanjay Shinde, deputy municipal commissioner of PMC, says, “There is no doubt that there has been a sharp rise in positive cases in PMC jurisdiction.” He added that there are multiple reasons including the festival and people travelling to other places like Mumbai for work. “Earlier we used to get around 150 positive cases which have increased up to 300 positive cases per day,” said Shinde.
Shinde admitted that the number of oxygen beds and ventilators is not available in proportion to the number of positive cases. However, they are managing the situation. “I cannot say that we have a sufficient number of oxygen beds and ventilators available. But we are able to manage at this moment as many patients are also getting discharged every day,” said Shinde. He added that we have already tied up with private hospitals and that is helping.
The civic body also sorted out the oxygen supply issues which hospitals are facing for some time. “We met oxygen suppliers today and directed them to supply 80% to hospitals and remaining to the industry as per the state government direction,” said Shinde. He added that the supply will become normal from Monday.
Civic administration has appealed to citizens to take necessary precautions while stepping out of their homes. “The civic body will launch “My Family My Responsibility” campaign from September 15 and aggressively conduct an Antigen test of people travelling to Mumbai,” said Shinde. He added that the team will also visit housing societies to conduct a survey of people having any symptoms of Covid-19 and conduct Antigen tests if required.
