Nashik Smart City Initiatives Strengthens City’s Fight Against COVID-19

Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) has taken-up numerous initiatives to fight COVID-19. Some of the key initiatives at the city level include:

Cleanliness/ Sanitization of Public Places: Spraying of Sodium Hypochlorite by means of 8  Tractors (on roads of 75Km) & 13 Pumps on an area of 36 sq.km at various NMC Offices, Quarantine Facilities and across the City. Further, spraying of pesticides & smoke sprays has been done by 287 Malaria fighting workers on across 37.5 Sq. Meter & 109 Km of area across city respectively.

Separate vehicles for Waste collection & Disposal from Quarantined households: Collection of door-to-door waste & disposal from Home Quarantined households is undertaken by Corporation’s sanitation workers separately.

Provision of special PPE for sanitation workers: Provision of safety equipment such as Hand Gloves, Face Masks, Hand Sanitizers & other PPE has been made to 748 Medical officials & 1500 Sanitation Workers.

Provision of Facility of Institutional Quarantine wards: Planning & Provision of 14 Institutional quarantine wards has been done across city for the COVID-19 suspects. Total 72 beds have been utilized till date at Institutional quarantine wards.

Frontline Testing by Doctors & Health Workers in Sealed Zone: Task Force of 22, 12 & 11 Teams consisting of Doctors & Health Workers has been deployed for Citizens of Govind Nagar, Anand Valli & Nashik Road for the Health Check-ups. Medical check-up of over 8000 citizens has been done by Health officials across the sealed area till date.

Smartphone App ‘MahaKavach’:

The MahaKavach is a real-time digital contact tracing mobile application which enables citizens to contribute and assist the health authorities in contact tracing, geo-fencing and tracking of quarantined COVID-19 Patients. Selfie attendance feature has been also added in application to get virtual attendance. This app is to be used by Individuals as directed by their doctor or medical worker. The app also encourages to update the quarantine status for greater adherence. This update increases reliability of home location data. It also ensures a breach update is sent only once.

Smartphone App “Nashik Bazzar: Nashik Municipal Corporation and Maharashtra Chambers of Commerce Industry & Agriculture (MCCIA), jointly developed "Nashik Bazzar" app to benefit city residents to order online the daily necessary essentials such as Grocery, Tiffin, Meals, Medical Help, Fruits, Grains, Medicine, Dairy, Snacks, Vegetable etc. & get free home delivery. Total Numbers of 902 nos. of residents & 332 nos. of Suppliers have registered so far.

Smartphone App ‘NMC COVID-19’: It provides 11 Services to the citizens. Services such as Covid-19 informer – to inform about Corona Suspects, Provision of necessary contact numbers such as doctors, hospitals, ambulances etc., Provision of list of Grocery & Meat stores, Registration for Food donation Services to needy one, Provision of reporting of stranded peoples in Shelter homes listed area wise. So far 700+ citizens have downloaded & are using this application.

Social Awareness via VMD & PAS: Establishment of Variable Message Display (VMD) for Display of Remotely Controlled Static/ Picture Messages & Public Addressing System (PAS) for Scheduling of Remotely Controlled Voice Message (Frequency of 15 Minutes) about COVID-19 initial symptoms, Precautionary measures & helpline numbers. Crowded locations such as Central Bus Stand, Railway Station road, Institutional areas & Junctions were covered for the installation of such smart elements.

IVR based 24*7 Helpdesk: Use of 24*7 Helpdesk System for Inbound calls & pre-recorded, outbound text and voice messages to citizens to get information about the COVID-19. Total 4,50,000 nos. of citizens across the city got contacted via Text/ Vocal sound messages till date. Separate help line number is available to assist senior citizens and differently abled citizens to help them in getting daily essentials & medicines.

Integrated Command & Control Center Platform: Use of ICCC Platform to continuously monitor Web & Mobile based COVID-19 applications

Body Sanitizing Machine: Establishment of Body Sanitizing Machine at Nashik Municipal Corporation Head office, Divisional Offices & Hospitals (BYTCO Hospital, Indira Gandhi Hospital, Swami Samarth Hospital & Zakir Hussain Hospital).

Aerosol Box: Use of Aerosol Box & Aerosol Intubation Box in Municipal Hospital to collect swab sample & to protect medical workers such as doctors and patients while operating COVID-19 suspects.

• Door to door COVID-19 Survey, Social awareness & check-ups for Corona virus in various regions by Nurses & ASHA Workers
• Daily visits & Calls to quarantined patient’s residents by Nurses & ASHA Workers

COVID-19 Help Survey Questionnaire: Citizen Information form has been developed which will capture details of citizens regarding COVID-19 Symptoms, travel history & their location details which will help officials to identify symptomatic citizens.

Decentralization of Fruit & Vegetable Market: NMC set up 106 Markets at different locations across the city to sell Fruits & Vegetables. So Far 522 Tons of Vegetables & 20 Tons of Fruits have been sold from the Market.

Farmers Group & NGO Help: 42 Farmers group in 82 different locations across the  city, provides Fruit & Vegetables to Citizens. In addition to this, Sahyadri Farmers Producer Company, Green Fields Services & Draksh Vigyan Mandal provided Home delivery of Fruits & Vegetable baskets to citizens. NGO's are also helping NMC to provide Medical & Food supplies to the needy citizens.

Doctor Aplya Dari, Firta Dawakhana: With this initiative, Slums areas in the 6 divisions of the City are getting covered.

Provision of Shelter Homes: NMC has provisioned Ward Wise Shelter homes for migrated workers, beggars & Rag Pickers where Psychiatrist, Councilor & Mental Health Experts interact with the peoples about Cleanliness, Social Distancing & Positive Mental Health.

Implementation of aforementioned initiatives has helped Nashik Municipal Corporation in controlling the spread of COVID-19 across the Municipal region.