‘This is how we battled the second Covid-19 wave’

Ahmednagar Collector and District Magistrate DM Rajendra Bhosale on Thursday narrated to Prime Minister Narendra Modi the efforts his administration took to fight the second outbreak of Covid19The PM held a video conference with 60 DMs including 17 from Maharashtra on the Covid19 situation Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and health minister Rajesh Tope were among the invitees to Modis online interaction But neither Thackeray nor Tope spoke at the event said people close to them as the DMs were supposed to represent their statesBhosale visits a private Covid19 hospital in April PicTwitterSix DMs presented their case studies including Bhosale who spoke about his experiences of novel experiments successful implementation of the central and state governments preventive measures by way of coordination between all agencies and encouraging public participation in their fight against Covid19 in Ahmednagar mdash one of the worsthit districtsAlso Read Maharashtra Isolation of 119 in village in Nanded breaks Covid19 chainHe also talked about the statersquos model of testing tracing vaccination and also mobilisation of village panchayat for tracing tracking and treatingPublic participation in 1316 gram panchayats were encouraged under the leadership of Popatrao Pawar a Padma Shri awardee rural reformer Pawar created a model of forming teams in villages to look after the Covid19affected residentsrsquo domestic needs including farming and cattle care Bhosale explained to the PMEarly treatment helpedPawarrsquos Hiwarebazar village succeeded using the model that was implemented in the statersquos biggest district At village level the DM directly contacted the talathi sarpanch gramsevak police patil for implementation of the CMrsquos my family my responsibilityrsquo programme which helped in tracing people with comorbidities and treating them before the ailment worsened Statersquos other programme lsquoMy Doctorrsquo helped the people Nodal officers were appointed for each taskIn the second wave home isolation was stopped and all active patients were treated at Covid19 care centres This stopped transmission Oxygen management was done through a special team that avoided panic The districtrsquos 14 rural hospitals will now have oxygen plants to support 1750 more oxygen beds Bhosale informed ModiDuring the interaction union health secretary Luv Agarwal appreciated the BMC for its oxygen management especially the creation of buffer stocks and public announcement of credentials of the officers responsible for distributionCM congratulates DMLater Thackeray called up Bhosale to congratulate him for an excellent presentation Earlier Modi had appreciated Thackeray for the state governments efforts in tackling the pandemic and the Niti Aayog chief had praised the Mumbai model They hailed praises on the state even as the Maharashtra BJP accused the Thackeray government of hiding Covid19 figures and falling short of efforts to reduce the death tollTope after the interaction asked the Centre for a policy to make vaccines and medicines available in the national and international marketsHe said the statersquos global tender for procuring 5 crore vials of Covid19 vaccine hadnrsquot received response yet ldquoWe have relaxed tender terms but no vaccine manufacturer has responded as yetrdquo he said requesting the Centre to give Maharashtra more vaccines in the free quota and help in buying vaccines for the 1844 age group beneficiaries ldquoThough the interim period between the first and second dose has been increased we cannot delay the first dose The waitlisted people for the second dose will always be our priorityrdquo he saidOn the mucormycosis Tope said the disease has so far claimed 90 lives in the state which needs increased supply of medicine to treat it