Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray inaugurated four new COVID-19 health centres via video conferencing on Tuesday, July 7. These centres will be located in Mulund, Dahisar, Mahalaxmi Racecourse, and Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC). In his tweet, he mentioned that these new hospitals will add 3,520 ICU beds to the total tally.
Out of these, the centre at Mulund will contain 1,700 bed for the patients which have been built by the City & Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra (CIDCO) out of which 500 beds shall be reserved for Thane Municipal Corporation.
CM Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray inaugurated 3520 bed Corona treatment facilities. These facilities will be spread out across Mulund, Dahisar, Mahalaxmi Race course and Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC). pic.twitter.com/IsJGvOBLWG
— CMO Maharashtra (@CMOMaharashtra) July 7, 2020
The centre at Dahisar East will consist of 900 beds and has been built with the help of Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL), while the one at Kandarpada in Dahisar West is a dedicated coronavirus hospital with 108 beds which is equipped with ICU facilities.
The inauguration of these centres was done in the presence of Aditya Thackeray, Aslam Shaikh, Kishori Pednekar, Iqbal Singh Chahal, the MD of CIDCO Lokesh Chandra and the MD of MMRCL Ranjit Singh Deol.
On the other hand, recent data published by the BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) shows that there are 7,208 beds vacant across Mumbai’s hospitals and dedicated COVID-19 facilities including isolation or quarantine centres.
A civic official mentioned that the BMC wants to make sure there are adequate facilities available for an unexpected surge in cases, adding that most of the work for new COVID-19 centres began when the city was expecting a steep rise in cases.
The BMC has three types of institutions dedicated to COVID-19 treatment including COVID Care Centres 1 (CCC 1) for suspects or high-risk contacts, and COVID Care Centres 2 (CCC 2) for those with mild symptoms.
Lastly, there are Dedicated COVID Health Care Centres (DCHC) for cases deemed to be moderate. These are set up in addition to the COVID-19 Facilities that are designated for severe patients.
MLA from Mulund Mihir Kotecha stressed that there’s a need to increase the number of ventilators and ICU beds across COVID-19 facilities in the city. He also mentioned that a lot of isolation beds at several centres are currently vacant.
“A large number of patients are asymptomatic and many prefer home quarantine to these jumbo centres. The focus should be on having additional ICU beds or beds with ventilators,” he said.
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The fact that 7,208 out of the 19,913 beds are currently vacant is certainly a good part of the story. However, given the previous spike in cases, it will be premature to predict if these facilities will be enough.
The State of Maharashtra is in lockdown until the 31st of July owing to increase in cases during the latter part of June. However, the State announced that it will allow hotels, guest houses, and lodges in non-containment zones starting July 8.
The total number of coronavirus cases in Maharashtra are 2,11,987 out of which 1,15,262 cases have been cured. The state is under a lockdown till 31st July, with complete lockdown in few areas of Mumbai.
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