As Cyclone Nisarga made landfall in parts of Maharashtra yesterday, the BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) is conducting evacuations of residents living along the coast of the city. The authorities said that 19,000 slum residents were shifted to temporary shelters located across Mumbai.
Additionally, the BMC has also mentioned that it will test symptomatic residents in the shelter for COVID-19. However, this indicates that there will be no tests conducted for asymptomatic patients, raising concerns about the spread of the coronavirus in a tightly packed shelter.
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It is an established fact at this point that Mumbai’s health infrastructure is overrun with COVID-19 patients. A recent report revealed that despite the BMC asking private hospitals to allocate a certain number of beds for COVID-19 patients, many were found to be falling short. Separately, the civic body also sent show-cause notices to four private hospitals in Mumbai.
As for the cyclone, Mumbai has been spared the worst as of Wednesday, although flights scheduled between 2:30 PM and 7 PM were suspended owing to the weather conditions. Earlier on Wednesday, vehicular traffic on the Bandra-Worli Sealink was partially restricted.
While Nisarga hit Maharashtra’s coastlines pretty hard, regions like Raigad and Alibaug were the most affected. There were reports of roofs flying off of makeshift homes in Alibaug due to strong winds.
Additional Municipal Commissioner of the BMC, Ashwini Bhide, expressed gratitude to the civic body’s Gardens Department in a tweet saying - “BMC’s Garden department and all ward teams have done a great job today by immediately attending to alerts of fallen trees and broken branches due to CycloneNisarg and clearing the roads in the shortest possible time. Debris will be lifted by tomorrow morning.”
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