The Pune Municipal Corporation isconsidering setting up swab collection centres in coronavirus hotspots in the central part of the city for people's convenience, commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad said on Saturday.Pune district has reported over 1,800 coronavirus cases so far, most of them in the city.Gaikwad and other PMC officials visited slum pockets in the infection hotspot areas and interacted with local people earlier in the day."During our interaction, several people demanded that swab collection centres be set up in their areas as it would be convenient for them," he said.Once their swabs were taken for coronavirus test, they could stay at nearby schools or marriage halls which the civic body has requisitioned and isolate themselves till the results arrives, people told the officials.At present, those who are found to have come in contact with infected persons in hotspot areas in central parts of Pune are shifted to Rakshak Nagar in Kharadi, 15 km away."The people who test negative come home a day after and those whotest positive proceed to isolation facilities," he said.But many people resist being shifted to an area which is away from their homes."To make it convenient for people, we will think of setting up swab collection centre in their own areas and after the swab collection, they can be shifted to the nearest school or marriage hall for quarantiningprocess," Gaikwad said."Living near their homes will be comfortable for them," he said.He also informed that as many as 300 pulse oximeters have been given to officials who are conducting screening in hotspot areas."With these oximeters, municipal teams will be able to screen people at home to identify severe (COVID-19) cases," he said.Pulse oximeter, a small electronic device that clips onto a fingertip to indirectly measure oxygen saturation of the patient's blood, can identify critical cases as it has been observed that COVID-19 patients tend to have lower blood oxygen levels.The test is not confirmatory but it can help detect people with low blood oxygen levels who can then be tested further for virus infection.
