Last year, the PMC had made civic school teachers and PMPML staff carry out door-to-door surveys to identify patients and register comorbid patients in each house.
As the city continues to witness a surge in Covid-19 cases, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has roped in 50 personnel from its education department, for each of the 15 ward offices, to focus on contact tracing of Covid-19 positive patients and help in containing the spread of the disease.
The PMC has already provided a Quick Response Team (QRT) for each of the 15 ward offices in the city. The civic body, however, considering the rapid spread of the viral infection, has decided to further intensify contact tracing.
“The staff of civic education department are being once again roped in for contact tracing of positive patients. They will have to report to the ward offices allocated to them,” said additional municipal commissioner Rubal Agarwal.
If anyone fails to report on the duty allotted to them for containment of Covid-19, then they will face disciplinary action, she said. Fifty teachers of civic schools have been allotted to each of the 15 ward offices.
Last year, the PMC had made civic school teachers and Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) staff carry out door-to-door surveys to identify patients and register comorbid patients in each house.
The PMC plans to trace 15 low risk and five high risk contacts of positive patients that have come in contact with the infected person in the last few days. They will be screened for Covid-19 and will be given necessary instructions as per requirement.
The PMC has already increased the swab collection centres to enable more citizens with symptoms to get tested. More than 10,000 citizens are tested every day and the city has been witnessing a daily positivity rate of just over 20 percent.
The civic administration has also started Covid Care Centres (CCC) in different parts of the city in addition to restarting of a jumbo Covid-19 hospital. Private hospitals have been asked to increase bed capacity.
