Four new jumbo facilities take city’s bed capacity to 76,076
ACROSS CITY CM inaugurates facilities with 3,520 beds; 25,203 beds are for Covid-positive patients
MUMBAI: Four new jumbo facilities for Covid-19 patients, temporarily constructed in open fields, were inaugurated on Tuesday, adding 3,520 new beds, including 228 for intensive care units (ICU), to the city’s treatment facility. It has upgraded Mumbai’s bed capacity to 76,076, including those in hospitals, ICUS, with ventilators and oxygen points, and beds to quarantine non-covid-19 people and high-risk contacts of Covid-19 positive patients.
Of the 76,076 beds, 25,203 beds are for Covid-positive patients, and 50,873 beds for institutional quarantine of non-covid-19 people, but high-risk contacts of Covid-19 positive patients. Additionally, BMC has 23,840 inactive beds to treat asymptomatic Covid-19 patients, if the need arises.
Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray inaugurated these facilities via video-conferencing.
The facilities are located at Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg in Mulund (1,700 beds constructed with the help of CIDCO); Dahisar West (955 beds constructed with the help of Mumbai Metro); Mahalaxmi Racecourse with 700 beds constructed through corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds, and phase II of the facility at the Bandra-kurla Complex (BKC) ground constructed with the help of Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) (figure of total beds not known).
While the BKC facility has 120 ICU beds, the Dahisar facility has 108 ICU beds.these jumbo facilities will become operational from Wednesday.
Speaking at the inauguration, Thackeray, according to a press release issued by the chief minister’s office on Tuesday evening, said, “These are state-of-the-art facilities and equate with the status of facilities at any hospital in the city, even though these jumbo facilities are temporary. We have to now focus on construction of permanent hospitals in Maharashtra to fight the spread of infectious and communicable diseases.”
Mumbai’s Covid care facilities are divided into Dedicated Covid Hospitals (DCHC) for patients who are serious, critical, or showing severe to moderate symptoms, Dedicated Covid Health Centres (DCHC) for patients who are showing moderate to mild symptoms, and the Covid Care Centres (2) - (CCC2) for asymptomatic patients.
Mumbai currently has 21,683 DCHC, DCH and CCC2 beds, including 1,606 ICU beds, 10,549 beds with oxygen points, and 942 ventilator beds. Another category of Covid Care Centres called CCC1 are for quarantining highrisk contacts of Covid-19 patients. The total number of CCC1 beds is 50,873.
Environment minister and guardian minister of Mumbai’s suburbs Aaditya Thackeray, guardian minister of island city Aslam Shaikh, Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar and Mumbai’s municipal commissioner IS Chahal attended the inauguration via video-conferencing.
Thackeray also said: “Maharashtra is the first state in the country to introduce the concept of state-of-the-art hospitals constructed in open fields. Maharashtra has set a record of setting up ICUS in such open space hospitals.”
Aaditya Thackeray said, according to the press release, said: “We are attempting to bring robotic technology to these facilities. Care is being taken to ensure that doctors are safe.”
While 500 beds at the Mulund facility are reserved for patients from Thane Municipal Corporation, 200 beds at the Dahisar facility are reserved for patients from Mira-bhayandar Municipal Corporation.
On Sunday, Dr Gautam Bhansali, chief coordinator of private hospitals and municipal corporation, had told Hindustan Times that a large number of patients admitted to Mumbai’s hospitals are from Mira-bhayandar, Thane, Kalyan, and Dombivli.