The COVID-19 pandemic has taken the whole nation in its clutches, with few of the cities affected worse by the virus. However, the Centre has identified four cities which serves as role models in handling COVID-19 pandemic. The cities are- Jaipur, Indore, Chennai and Bengaluru. These four cities will serve as a role model for other cities in handling the pandemic.
Whether it is, Indore and Jaipur’s innovative ways at handling high caseload or Chennai and Bengaluru’s way of keeping the mortality rates low, the country has a lot to learn from these four cities.
In the meetings organised by the Centre, experiences were shared by municipal bodies which covered two aspects-
- Which were the effective practices that proved fruitful in handling a high number of positive cases?
- How the mortality rates can be reduced?
The answer to those questions lied in the model practised by Indore, Jaipur, Chennai and Bengaluru.
In order to control the high caseload, house to house surveys, contact tracing are aggressively being done by Indore and Jaipur. Without a fail, special patrolling teams are formed by Indore, Jaipur is limiting the supply of groceries and vegetable vendors in specific areas.
On the other hand, although, the number of COVID-19 positive cases are higher in both Chennai and Bengaluru, the mortality rate is just about 1%- which is a number quite lower than the India’s national average of around 3%. The cities are able to achieve these results by mindfully optimising the use of ventilators and assigning the degree of urgency whilst dealing with a large number of patients.
Other than these four cities, the strategy of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation was also appreciated in the meetings held by the Centre. In order to pool health infrastructure, the corporation has established a network of private hospitals and municipal authorities. In addition to this, a portal is being worked upon in which the information related to the online availability of beds in different hospitals will be provided apart from GPS-enabled ambulances for real-time tracking.
