BMC issues fresh SOPs to fight the surge in COVID-19 cases

As Mumbai witnesses a sharp spike in the coronavirus cases, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday, April 12, released a fresh list of guidelines and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to be followed.

The BMC chief Iqbal Singh Chahal said that these SOPs will come into force with immediate effect.

As mentioned earlier, the following steps have been taken by @mybmc acting upon my discussions with MC Iqbal Singh Chahal ji.
I urge all to use 1916 or ward helplines of BMC.
Stay Home. Stay Safe! pic.twitter.com/35dMYJcr5e

— Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) April 12, 2021

• Nodal Officers will be appointed for accurate and even more proactive functioning of 24 Ward War Rooms and jumbo field hospitals, especially from 11 pm to 7 am. These officers shall function in two shifts from 3 pm to 11 pm and 11 pm to 7 am both at Ward War Rooms and jumbo field hospitals as well.
• Moreover, each war room will now have nodal officers to oversee operations, particularly during the night, to facilitate bed requirements for incoming patients and suspected cases.
• Three new jumbo COVID care centres shall be set up in the next five-six weeks at three different locations in Mumbai with a capacity of 2000 beds -- including 200 ICU beds and 70 per cent oxygenated beds.
• Any patient calling the Ward War Room for COVID bed between 11 pm and 7 am shall be referred to a particular jumbo field hospital and on arrival at a particular jumbo centre, a suitable bed will be allotted to the patient after assessing his medical condition.
• Those patients who will arrive at the jumbo centres without a COVID report will also be entitled to a bed and tests will be conducted for them at the centre itself.
• Moreover, testing labs will be functional round the clock, i.e 24 hours, without fail. The labs have been instructed to give priority to swabs of symptomatic patients while processing the COVID-19 test collected under home collection of swabs.
• Besides, the BMC has added 325 ICU beds in various Mumbai hospitals, taking the total number of ICU beds to 2,466.
• It has also been informed that certain 4/5 star hotels across the city will be requisitioned immediately to create COVID care centres for positive patients and will be run by professionals from major private hospitals. Hence, the recovered patients will be shifted from hospitals to these centres to make those beds available for the needy patients.