Lockdown 4.0: More trade establishments, offices to open, says Municipal Commissioner

Lockdown 4.0: More trade establishments, offices to open, says Municipal Commissioner

Pune: Indicating more relaxations during the lockdown 4.0 in the non-containment areas, Municipal Commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad on Saturday said more trade establishments and offices will open in Pune during lockdown 4.0, except for those in the containment zones.

He was interacting with the media in the Corona war room at the Smart City Command Centre on Sinhagad Road regarding the Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) approach towards fighting the Coronavirus pandemic.

Gaikwad said, “Except for the containment zones, all the other areas in the city will have more relaxations after May 18. The government offices will open at 100 per cent staff. We will also start permitting private offices to start.”

The status of the containment zones in the city will be reviewed in the next two days, he added.

The municipal commissioner said, “In the next phase of the lockdown, we would add or remove areas from the containment zones according to the status of the infection there.”

While the number of Covid-19 cases in the five most concerning wards has not improved, Gaikwad also said that the number of patients that they had estimated has declined.

“Earlier, we had estimated that by May-end, the number of positive cases in the city would rise to 9,600, necessitating requirement of those many beds at hospitals. However, for every 150 new patients, around 100 are also recovering each day. So now we estimate that we will have around 5,000 patients by the month-end, which we can handle,” Gaikwad added.

Containment zone-centric approach
“We need to learn to live with the Coronavirus in the future. Hence, the containment zone-centric approach that PMC adopted has helped and will help in the long run,” Gaikwad said.

Pune has 69 containment zones in different parts of the city. Additional Municipal Commissioner Rubal Agarwal, who was also present, said the maximum number of the new cases detected every day are from the containment zones.

Speaking further about the approach, Gaikwad said, “We implemented maximum lockdown restrictions in the identified containment zones where we are finding the maximum number of cases. Relaxing the restrictions in other areas was necessary as we need to let people get used to living with the Coronavirus so that they take the utmost care.”
The civic chief also stated that focusing on the containment zones helped him ensure better resource management.

“Many a time, due to the local political will and several other factors, the resources do not always reach where they are required the most. Through containment zones, we made sure that we could converge maximum resources to the areas worst hit by the pandemic,” Gaikwad said.

'Higher health budget'
“One thing that I have noticed prominently through this whole process is that we need to make a higher budgetary provision towards the health sector. I have also been speaking about the same with the civic officials as well as politicians in several meetings now,” Gaikwad said, adding that around 5 to 10 per cent of the budget must be diverted towards the strengthening of the public health system.

“It’s the government hospitals that save the day in the end, as we have not been able to get as much transparency as we needed from private hospitals. At the municipal level, we need to have our medical preparedness,” he said.

COVID response report 
The municipal commissioner said that his team would be releasing a 500-page report on the COVID response. “It is necessary to document the response to such calamities so that there would be a reference for those combating any such situation in the future,” he stated.

Enjoyed reading The Bridge Chronicle?
Your support motivates us to do better. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to stay updated with the latest stories.
You can also read on the go with our Android and iOS mobile app.

Related Stories

No stories found.
logo
The Bridge Chronicle
www.thebridgechronicle.com