The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday, March 29, announced that it would discharge the COVID-19 patients who are asymptomatic in order to vacate hospitals beds for those with more serious symptoms.
In its order, the civic body said that no asymptomatic patients without any comorbidities will be allotted a bed in any public or private hospital.
It further described the "needy" patient as the one with "mild or serious symptoms or a COVID-19 patient with comorbidities".
Moreover, the civic body has also decided to place the order for procuring 1.5 lakh injections of antiviral drug Remdesivir and other medical equipment to avoid any potential shortage of medicines at hospitals, a senior official said.
Meanwhile, BMC commissioner IS Chahal has empowered assistant commissioners to take decisions at the ward-level and stressed activation of war rooms for better management of available beds, ICU beds, ventilators among others, as per the order.
He also stated that all admissions should be routed through the ward-level war rooms to avoid chaos similar to the first wave of coronavirus when several patients ran from pillar to post to get a bed.
This development comes to ensure prompt availability of beds to the needy as the number of cases has been increasing rapidly. “Urgently discharge any asymptomatic COVID-19 positive patients admitted to any hospital to vacate the beds," Chahal said.
Earlier, it was reported that more than 80 per cent of the cases in the city were asymptomatic and a sizeable number of new cases are being reported from high-rise buildings.
As of March 25, there are 8,466 non-ICU beds and 931 ICU beds being operationalised at the hospitals run by the government and the BMC, the order said.
Chahal also directed officials to immediately assess the structural stability and fire audit of all COVID-19 facilities.
In a meeting held with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Health Minister Rajesh Tope and other officials on Sunday, March 28, principal secretary to state health department Dr Pradeep Vyas had predicted tremendous stress on the availability of beds, oxygen supply, and ventilators, which could fall short if the cases continue to go up.
Hence, the Maharashtra government recently decided to purchase additional oxygen cylinders and ventilators for various COVID treatment centres.
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