With 5000-bed Covid care centre, Nagpur authorities prepare for ‘corona peak’

The city, so far, has 35 quarantine centres with a capacity to house 10,000 patients.

Located about 15 km from the city, Radhaswami Satsang Beas has provided mattresses, potable water and food for the patients. The NMC will provide doctors, health workers, beddings and utensils.

Mundhe visited the centre on Monday and checked the centre’s preparedness. The centre will have 20 staffers per 100 beds. The medical and police personnel on duty will also have residential facility.

The centre would be headed by ‘Incident Commander and Executive Engineer’ Shweta Bannerjee.

An earlier decision by Mundhe, to shift over 3,000 persons from various containment zones of the city, had raised many eyebrows and prompted people to file PILs challenging the move in the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court. Asked why he chose to quarantine all the people from certain areas instead of putting them under home quarantine, Munde said, “We haven’t quarantined all but only high-risk contacts. And isolation isn’t possible at home in congested areas.”

Allegations of mismanagement at these centres are also being raised. People from city’s Mominpura and Satranjipura localities, quarantined at the MLAs’ hostel, complained of having to go without food on Sunday morning and late delivery of lunch. Mundhe, however, told The Indian Express, “It was a temporary problem arising out of change of caterers. There were certain issues with the earlier caterer. So, we called another through the tender process…”.

Meanwhile, a 39-year-old coronavirus patient admitted three days ago died on Monday, taking the overall death toll in the city to four. The cumulative case tally in the district has gone up to 298, with 93 being discharged.

Akola also recorded a death on Monday, taking the total number of deaths in the district to 14. Buldana, which had become corona-free on Sunday with the remaining four patients being discharged, saw a new case on Monday from Jalgaon Jamod town in the district.