BMC: Ready to handle rise in Covid-19 cases

MUMBAI: With the city lifting several restrictions, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is expecting daily Covid-19 cases to increase to nearly 2,000 from the present average of 1,000 to 1,200 cases.

However, civic officials said that BMC is equipped to handle this surge.

Currently, the city witnesses 1,000-1,200 daily positive cases on average, of which nearly 85% are asymptomatic cases. Arrangements for hospital beds have been made for the remaining 15%. The requirements for daily beds may go up if the cases increase.

Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner, said, “There could be a possible hike as more people are stepping out of their homes and there is more traffic on the roads. Three things are important to handle a rise in cases – bed capacity, medical equipment and sufficient manpower. To tackle this, we have set up Covid centres, dedicated hospitals, and additional manpower. As of today, we have thousands of beds lying vacant; 20% of the ICU beds are vacant, and 50% of oxygen beds are vacant.”

Kakani added that even if the number of symptomatic patients goes up, Covid facilities are well-equipped to handle the rise.

As of August 13, the total hospital-bed capacity for Covid patients in the city was 23,166, of which 10,513 are vacant. BMC has an additional 23,477 beds in CCC2 facilities and 49,409 beds in CCC1 facilities.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Mumbai recorded 1,200 Covid-19 cases and 48 deaths.

The total number of infected cases in the city has reached 127,566, and the total death toll is 6,991, according to the state health department data.

As per BMC’S data, of the 48 deaths reported on Thursday, four were of patients below 40 years of age; 35 were of patients above 60 years, and nine patients were between 40 to 60 years of age.

The data further states that 885 patients recovered and were discharged on Thursday.

A total of 100,954 patients have been treated and discharged until now. The total number of active patients in the city is 19,314. The recovery rate of the city is at 79%.

Further, a total of 6.29 lakh Covid tests were done till Wednesday.

The doubling rate of the city has gone up to 87 days. Meanwhile, Dharavi reported six new cases on Thursday, taking the area’s total to 2,649.