‘Shift patients to CCCS in other wards, if need be’

On Thursday, the city recorded a new highest singleday count of Covid-19 cases, as 991 individuals tested positive, taking the total number of cases in Mumbai to 16,738, according to data from the Maharashtra health department. Mumbai also recorded 25 deaths on Thursday, taking the toll to 621.

According to data from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the city recorded 998 new cases on Thursday, of which 364 are of patients who tested positive in private laboratories on May 11 and 12. Explaining the difference in BMC and state figures, a civic official said, “There may be a different cut-off time at which entries must have been taken from the portal.”

Of the 25 deaths (18 men, seven women), 16 victims had co-morbidities. Fourteen deaths were of people above 60 years; 10 victims were between the ages of 40 and 60, and one person below 40 years succumbed to the virus. Mumbai’s mortality is now at 3.7%. Dharavi on Thursday recorded 33 new Covid-19 patients and two deaths, taking the total number of positive cases for the area to 1,061, alongside 49 deaths.

Seven additional deaths were also recorded in Dharavi the same day, of patients who died on different dates, but were reported as Covid-19 positive to the respective ward office on Thursday.

INCREASING BEDS FOR HIGH-RISK CONTACTS With a renewed focus on shifting high-risk contacts of Covid-19 patients to institutional quarantine facilities, especially those living in slums and congested pockets, BMC is now looking to scale up the availability of quarantine beds in category-1 Covid care centres (CCC-1). At present, BMC has a total of over 23,100 CCC-1 beds across 260 odd facilities, of which 10,237 beds are occupied.

On Saturday, municipal commissioner IS Chahal directed all ward officers to intensify tracing of high-risk contacts in Mumbai up to 10 persons per Covid-positive patient, up from the present average of three. He also directed officers to improve coordination with adjoining wards to use their CCC-1 facilities, if any ward is nearing its full capacity for quarantine beds.

In Dharavi, 35% of the total cases reported were among highrisk contacts of positive patients. A senior civic official said, “One of the ways forward is large-scale institutional quarantining of contacts who live in slums and congested area.” Wards such as the G North (Dharavi, Dadar, Mahim), has over 2,450 CCC-1 beds, of which 718 are presently occupied. BMC has traced 6,496 high-risk contacts of 1,036 cases in Dharavi, as of Wednesday, and institutionally quarantined 5,857 residents through the course of one month.

“Our focus is to scale up bed capacity in existing facilities, as it is faster. We already have a setup of doctors, nurses, and arrangements for food. In my ward, I have identified Mahim Nature Park which will accommodate at least 650 odd beds,” said Dighavkar.

E ward is using 378 beds as of Tuesday, nearing its total CCC-1 bed capacity. A civic official from the ward said, “Our doubling rate has gone up to 14 days [as of Tuesday], from eight or nine days. Now the cases per day are coming down to 15 -30. The situation is improving due to contact tracing measures.”

Makarand Dagadkhair, assistant commissioner from E ward, said on Tuesday, “Around 80% of the cases are from pockets with community toilets, slums, and chawls. We are still increasing our contact tracing efforts, doorto-door screening, and containment policy.”

In H East ward (Bandra East), which has around 800 CCC-1 beds, 90% of them are occupied by high-risk contacts. However, assistant commissioner of the

H/E ward, Ashok Khairnar said, “I’m scaling up beds at CCC-1 to reach 1,100 in the next two days. We have identified the locations.”

MORE BEDS FOR MILD SYMPTOMATIC, ASYMPTOMATIC PATIENTS

In a press release on Thursday, BMC said it is also scaling up bed capacity for CCC-2 centres, where patients who are asymptomatic or show mild symptoms, are quarantined. CCC-2 bed capacity has been expanded to 34,329 across 241 facilities.

7,500 BEDS FREED UP FOR NON-COVID PATIENTS BMC has freed up 7,500 beds to treat patients suffering from illnesses other than Covid-19, across tertiary and peripheral municipal hospitals of the city.

A total of 3,539 beds have been made available at Sion hospital (1,278 beds); KEM Hospital (1,711 beds), and Cooper Hospital (550 beds).

Mumbai’s 18 peripheral hospitals have a total of 3,076 beds and 28 maternity homes have 899 beds for non-covid patients. Those with illnesses not related to Covid-19, can get help via BMC’S helpline 1916.