With a marked acceleration in COVID cases in Mumbai, the city witnessed a renewed execution of a list of restrictions. Reportedly, BMC is undertaking measures to increase testing and treatment in addition to ensuring stricter compliance with the announced guidelines. But, as of now, the civic body has no plans of imposing a lockdown in the city.
Fearing a rise in cases, Mumbai amps up COVID facilities
According to reports, the Additional Municipal Commissioner stated that a lockdown is not an alternative for dealing with the current circumstances in Mumbai. He added that all authorities have been instructed to make sure that the city is prepared for an uncontrolled rise in COVID cases, if it happens in the future.
All COVID facilities have been asked to examine and scrutinise ventilators, para-monitors, housekeeping, medicines, supplies, oxygen, fire equipment and security so that there are no troubles if the patient load rises. Also, the Mumbai Mayor had ordered the sealing of 1,300 buildings across the city that had a high number of infections, just recently.
As per reports, Mumbai currently has 11,968 isolation beds, out of which, 9,000 are empty for now. The BKC and NESCO jumbo facilities also have a significant number of patient beds that can be functional at a short notice. Though there were plans to allow private hospitals to reduce the number of isolation beds, this provision is kept at bay, fearing an anticipated rise in cases. Reportedly, 80% of the beds in private hospitals are available at government-mandated charges while the remaining 20% are charged at the hospital rates.
Worrying trends in infection rate across the state of Maharastra
According to reports, Dr. Subhash Salunkhe, advisor to state on COVID-19 expressed worry over the recent trends in infection rates across the state of Maharashtra. He also stated the only way to combat the virus is through ensuring that the vaccine reaches the elderly and the citizens with co-morbidities as soon as possible.
While some regions across Maharashtra are witnessing small-scale lockdowns, Mumbai has focussed its attention on amplifying quarantine zones and assuring stricter adherence to wearing masks. Amongst a list of measures implemented by the BMC, it has deployed 300 marshalls in local trains to catch commuters without masks.
COVID tallies in the city and state soaring up high!
On Monday, Maharastra recorded a confirmed cumulative tally of 21,00,884 COVID patients with 52,956 active cases and 51,788 fatalities. For Mumbai, the graph of active cases has shown an upward trend reaching a count of 5,859 on Monday. The city has witnessed a cumulative aggregate of 3,19,128 COVID patients with 11,446 deaths till now.
Mumbai is observing its second hard tryst with the deadly COVID virus. While the lockdown measures and restrictions are very important for controlling the spread of the virus, it is equally essential to up-scale the vaccination drives, assuring protection to as many people as possible.
