Nagpur: Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) in association with Nagpur City Police and District Collectorate would undertake a drive to test oxygen level of people with co-morbidity in city. The main area of concern for city administrators is persons with comorbidity and those who are on wrong side of age and as they are most vulnerable to COVID-19 virus. In an analysis of rising fatalities it was noticed that people are coming in late for hospitalisation and main reason is they are unaware of drop in oxygen level in blood.
Against this backdrop, NMC has joined hands with Nagpur City Police and District Collectorate to bring down the fatalities in COVID-19 and for the same they would reach out to people having history of Diabetes, Blood Pressure, Asthama and ILI symptoms measure their oxygen level.
At the same time, these people would be told to c o n t i n u o u s l y measure their levels and if the reading shows its below 95 then they should immediately contact NMC Helpline or nearest medical practitioner. Members of Non Government Organisation (NGO) would start from respective police stations in presence of corporator and Sr Police Inspector, in-charge of the police station. These team of NGOs along with Aasha workers and employees of health department of civic body would visit every household in the police station area and reach out to citizens and explaining to them their responsibilities in time of pandemic.
Basically, the patients in home quarantine would be explained the detailed procedure of keeping tab on their health till they are declared fine and fit. In number of cases, it is noticed that even in patients who are asymptomatic during first test do not know when the virus has mutated till the person grasps for breath and needs immediate hospitalisation.
As much time get wasted in locating vacant bed and reaching the hospital, the person oxygen level in blood has plummeted to dangerous levels leaving little change for medical intervention to save the lives. All this aspects were discussed in the meeting held to plan for oxygen level test and it was chaired by Sanjeev Kumar, Divisional Commissioner, Dr Bhushan Kumar Upadhyay, Commissioner of Police, Jalaj Sharma, Additional Municipal Commissioner, Ravindra Thakre, District Collector, and other civic officials.
The meeting was held at Divisional Commissionerate. Mayor Sandip Joshi has given thumbs up to the joint drive planned by various agencies and said there is need for extensive awareness among citizens about managing oxygen level in their blood. He also expressed hope that the efforts of administration would provide result in help in curbing the rising fatalities due to COVID-19 in city
