Pune: Marriage halls to govt polytechnic institutes, district admn ramps up bed strength in rural areas

In the last two-three days, Pune Zilla Parishad CEO Ayush Prasad has been interacting with tehsildars, block development officers (BDOs) and others to step up efforts to create more beds to treat and isolate Covid patients.




From vacant government flats, hostels, government polytechnic institutes to marriage halls, the Pune district administration is leaving no stone unturned to ensure adequate number of beds to treat Covid-19 patients in rural areas. Across 13 talukas in Pune district, more than 10,000 beds have been planned, of which 7,483 are functional at Covid care centres, Dedicated Covid Health Centres (DCHC) and dedicated Covid hospitals .

On Friday, another 500-bed Covid Care Centre (CCC) was inaugurated at Ozar in Junnar taluka. Pune District Collector Naval Kishore Ram told The Indian Express that the facility was ready within just three to four days. In the last two-three days, Pune Zilla Parishad CEO Ayush Prasad has been interacting with tehsildars, block development officers (BDOs) and others to step up efforts to create more beds to treat and isolate Covid patients.

“Covid wards have been identified at each of the 18 rural hospitals,” Prasad told The Indian Express. To test and isolate suspected persons with Covid and those who have mild symptoms, several CCCs have been set up across talukas. At Mhalunge in Chakan, Khed Taluka, 1,408 beds were set up across 340 two-BHK flats of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) in six buildings and have been operational for the last two months. With rise in cases, four buildings were allocated to the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC). At Awasari Bk in Ambegaon taluka another 1,000-bed CCC is being developed.

At Junnar, BDO Hemant Garibe said that chairman of Vighnahar Cooperative Sugar factory Satyasheel Sherkar helped in setting up the CCC at a large wedding hall. At least 200 low cost cardboard beds have been set up initially in the 500-bed CCC facility. At Lenyadri in Junnar, the capacity of beds at the CCC will be increased to 300, officials said. At Nerhe in Haveli taluka, another 700-bed CCC is operational.

Till July 23, there were a total of 4,429 Covid cases across Pune rural areas, including 75 deaths. The maximum number of cases are in the peri-urban areas under Haveli taluka (1,779 cases and 32 deaths) while Khed taluka has reported 532 cases. Mulshi taluka has reported 429 Covid cases, Maval (294), Junnar (276), Shirur (238). Baramati taluka so far has the least case load of 32 with three deaths. A total of 1,154 Covid patients have recovered and been discharged, Dr Bhagwan Pawar, district health officer, said.

According to Dr Ashok Nandapurkar, district civil surgeon, there are 5,845 CCC beds, 1,251 DCHC beds and 387 beds at dedicated Covid hospitals that are functional. “A total of 7,483 beds are functional and another 3,011 will be made ready soon,” Nandapurkar said.

There is a daily requirement of 2.15 lakh litres of oxygen in the rural areas and as part of the treatment strategy, over 1,600 oxygenated beds will be set up. “We are also conducting walk-in interviews for medical and paramedical staff and have hired services of at least 100 specialists who will be on call,” Pune Zilla Parishad CEO said. According to the district collector, cases are bound to rise in rural areas also, but as per their analysis, most of the cases are along the state highways. “We have done a detailed analysis of Covid cases in the Pune district and there are several villages with five or even less cases. We are also interacting with private hospital doctors who have now started working at government-run facilities,” Ram said.

All-women crew at DCHC

At Rajgurunagar in Khed taluka, nearly 40 kms from Pune, a 75-bed DCHC has been functional since July 13. Run by an all-women crew of 14 members, including four doctors, Dr Sheetal Pawar, coordinator at the DCHC told The Indian Express that there was a need to set up more of such facilities instead of rushing to Pune and other surrounding districts. “We took an old hospital on rent, spruced it up and got 12 oxygenated beds functional. There are no ventilators but already we have admitted 45 patients and 15 have been discharged after recovering from Covid-19,” Dr Pawar said.

Ajay Joshi, BDO at Khed, said they had reported 570 patients, of which 318 have been discharged while nine succumbed to the infection.

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