Worried over spike in COVID-19 cases in city, Mayor Dayashankar Tiwari advised civic administration to close classes for students of V to VIII and also colleges be directed to switch over to on-line mode of teaching. Middle schools had just resumed physical classes and also colleges started classes for first and final years students. But within a fortnight situation on virus front has assumed critical dimension leaving civic administration to consider strict measures for mimising crowding.

 

On Saturday, Mayor visited the Corona Control Room at civic headquarters in Civil Lines wherein stressed on minimising outing of students who are in vulnerable age group. Teaching classes should be closed where rules are being violated and strict action should be taken against those who do not wear masks in public places in the city. Establishments that appear to be more crowded should be dealt with as per rules, staff at Corona Control Room should be increased, help should be taken from NGOs and testing should be done on 100 per cent of the people in areas where more patients are coming positive.

 

The Mayor also suggested increasing the number of team engaged in counselling corona patients and raising awareness by reaching out to as many people as possible through the Corporators. For contact tracing help of Corporators should be taken. He also suggested increasing the number of Asha workers and nurses. He discussed the measures to be rolled out for containing COVID-19 surge with Municipal Commissioner Radhakrishnan B over phone. The number of patients of COVID-19 are increasing rapidly every day.

 

With the participation of all the Corporators, it will be easier to control the situation through co-ordination between the administration and the office bearers, said Mayor further. Deputy Mayor Manisha Dhawade, Additional Commissioner Sanjay Nipane were present on the occasion. Under the 'Mission Begin Again', which began after the lockdown was relaxed, citizens were allowed to start their daily business following the rules. However despite repeated requests and warnings from time to time, citizens have failed to comply with the guidelines.

 

Citizens it seems are averse to using masks in public places in the city. Mostly not a single commercial establishment is adhering to COVID-19 norms and owners and employees are averse to wearing masks though shops are over crowded at any given point of time. Earlier, Additional Commissioner briefed Mayor about the work being done from Corona Control Room. Citizens can get information about the vacant beds in private and government hospitals. He also informed that the telephone number of Corona control room is 0712-2567021 and it has been published in various media. Assistant Medical Health Officer Dr. Narendra Bahirwar and Dr. Vijay Joshi were also present during Mayor’s visit.