Since the COVID-19 induced lockdown began in India, we witnessed many developments as many people are working closely to provide aid to the infected and helping government with technology be it by working in finding cure, vaccines or developing new methods in testing for COVID-19 or mapping the areas affected due to the deadly virus.
CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI) has been working closely with Nagpur Municipal Corporation and developed a 3D map highlighting the COVID-19 cases in City and in Maharashtra. The map also highlights the COVID-19 hotspots in districts & municipal corporations of Maharashtra.
Along with this, the COVID-19 testing facility has become operational at CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI) from April 2020. So far more than 5,000 samples have been tested for COVID-19 in Nagpur.
Speaking with The Live Nagpur Hemant Purohit Head Environmental Biotechnology and Genomics Division NEERI Nagpur informed about the situation in Nagpur city.
Currently, we are testing COVID-19 samples for NEERI and our current plan of action is to provide fast and accurate results of the affected patients and correct information on Google Map to the citizens.
NEERI has been working closely in testing environmental changes in the city and has observed that the air quality has improved due to lockdown. We have seen that due to fewer humans around the pollution level not only in Nagpur but in various parts was less. We heard that Yamuna River was cleaned due to no human activity but the major reason was the addition of fresh water in the river and fewer pollutant chemicals were thrown which added in making the river clean. Another aspect is the rain which helps in settling down the big particles of dust to the ground which helps in clean air.
Speaking about categorizing the COVID-19 as Airborne Hemant said that “We must understand that the virus does travel through the air and can infect a healthy person who comes in contact with it. In order to break the chain, we must follow all guidelines issued by the health ministry and follow social distancing strictlyâ€.
“CSIR NEERI has been working in diagnosing, testing, vaccines, and drug development so that we can be one of the supply chains in every state so that every city receives vaccines after it is ready†he added.
When asked about if the health system of India has improved after pandemic he replied that “Our health system has always improved with time. The reason is that even after 3 months since the deadly disease began to spread in India the positive cases in our country are exponentially less even after having a large population as compared to other countries. We are able to manage and provide treatment to all the infected patients and our recovery rate is rising every day. We do have added some extra perks after pandemic as now even in rural areas the affected one is getting treatmentâ€.
Speaking on increasing the lockdown he said that “Our recovery rate is increasing with every day, but in order to cut the chain lockdown is one of the necessary steps as the only solution to stop the spread is social distancing as we are still testing on the vaccines we have to keep the virus at bay by maintaining social distancingâ€.
“The 14 day quarantine period does help in controlling the spreading and cutting the chain of a virus. Another reason for our high recovery rate is that people who were infected with COVID-19 have completed the set quarantine period and now have been fully recovered and the doubling rate is slowly increasing†he added.
“I request all to follow social distancing and wear a mask as it is one of the major tools to stop the transmission of the deadly virus, we will soon find a vaccine and this difficult time shall pass†he added.
