PMC launches app to track Covid patients in home isolation, plans to make download mandatory

App will also help patient get hospital admission on priority when required

STRUGGLING TO track close to 45,000 active Covid-19 patients in home isolation, the PMC has introduced a mobile application for the purpose. The civic body is planning to make it mandatory for patients to download the app, so that they get hospital admission on a priority basis when required.

The PMC home isolation mobile app was launched by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar a few days ago. “The PMC allows Covid-19 patients with mild symptoms or asymptomatic persons to be in home isolation. The number of patients in home isolation is huge. It is impossible for the civic administration to keep a track of all,” said a civic health officer.

Also, the PMC has received complaints that some patients in home isolation are violating safety protocols and moving around in public. The officer said this was happening despite the civic administration putting stamps on their wrists and putting stickers on the entry to their homes.

The PMC has set up a centralised control room as well as a separate control room in each ward office area to keep a track of Covid-19 patients, civic officers said.

Assistant Medical Officer Kalpana Baliwant said the number of newly infected patients in the city continues to be high. “We pass on the contact number of the patients to the control room of respective ward office. They are supposed to carry out tracing and tracking. They do it as much as possible,” she said.

Baliwant said the app will ease the situation of tracking patients in home isolation, and each new patient will be asked to download the app on their mobile phone. Also instructions were being given from the control room to patients to download the mobile app, she said.

She also said the app will ensure that the patient was in the system of continuous tracking by the PMC and would definitely get priority if there was a need for hospital admission. She added that the civic doctors would also be able to make quick decision on hospitalisation of the patient based on their daily report.

The patient or their relatives have to continuously feed in information on oxygen saturation levels, temperature, pulse rate and other symptoms in the mobile app. It automatically tracks the patient’s condition and sends a message to medical staff during an emergency or the patient can also send an emergency message through it.

The app also sends a message to the civic control room if the patient has left home beyond a periphery of 20 metres.

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